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COVID-19 Antibody Tests Now Available at MRH – Walk In, Cash Pay $25

COVID-19 Antibody Tests Now Available at Marlette Regional Hospital ~ Marlette Regional Hospital (MRH) is committed to providing high quality testing services to our patients and is pleased to offer the Abbott Architect SARS-CoV-2 IgG (COVID-19 antibody) test beginning July 1, 2020.

COVID-19 antibody testing will be done on a walk-in basis with no appointment necessary, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Insurances will not be billed and no physician order is required. The testing is available for $25 cash pay.

COVID-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that has proven to cause mild-to-severe respiratory illness. Antibodies are proteins that develop after contracting a disease. These proteins help your body fight off infections and typically provide protection against contracting the disease again in the future. Marlette Regional Hospital’s COVID-19 antibody test will detect antibodies in a blood sample that would indicate prior COVID-19 infection.

The Abbott test has been clinically proven to detect illness with 100% sensitivity and 99.6% specificity. MRH’s Laboratory Manager Linda Bush, MT(ASCP) shares, “MRH has been committed to providing safe, quality, and accurate testing throughout this global crisis, and we feel the new COVID-19 antibody testing will provide good insight in our region as to whether the virus was here and our population was impacted to a lesser degree, or perhaps it wasn’t here at all, and we need to stay cautious moving forward in the event of a second wave of illness. This Abbott testing has proven to be highly effective in determining exposure to the COVID-19 virus. Of the validation testing performed in our laboratory, 100% of samples from COVID-19 positive patients had antibodies present, and 100% of patients that were COVID-
19 negative had no antibodies present. That gives us reassurance that the testing is accurate.”

It is possible to have a positive test result even if you never had symptoms of COVID-19; this is called an asymptomatic infection. If you have a positive antibody result, it is likely that you previously had COVID-19 and have developed antibodies to the virus. If you are experiencing any symptoms, you should talk to your provider who will likely recommended that you have the viral pcr test done by swabbing the inside of your nose, as testing for the active virus is recommended for the diagnosis of COVID-19.

If you test positive or negative for COVID-19 antibodies, you should continue to take precautions to protect yourself and others. Precautions include frequent hand washing, avoiding touching your eyes, nose or mouth, practicing social distancing, and wearing a mask in public.

For more information about antibody testing, please visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, www.cdc.gov. For more information about Marlette Regional Hospital, please call 989-635-4000 or visit www.marletteregionalhospital.org.