UK Halts Sales of Fingerprick COVID-19 Antibody Tests

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is asking providers of laboratory-based COVID-19 antibody tests that use capillary blood collected by a fingerprick to temporarily halt sales until home collection has been properly assessed.

The agency said the request does not affect rapid, point-of-care tests or laboratory tests performed using blood taken from a vein.

People who have purchased one of the sampling kits and received an antibody test result, “should not consider the result to be reliable and should not take any action based on it,” the agency said.