The UK plans to issue coronavirus 'immunity passports' so Brits can leave the lockdown early

• The UK plans to roll out "immunity passports" to allow people who have contracted the COVID-19 disease to leave the lockdown early.
• UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said certificates could be issued to allow people who have built up immunity to the coronavirus to return to "normal life."
• Citizens would need to test positive for an antibody test before being issued with the certificates.
• However, the UK has yet to identify a reliable test for antibodies to the virus.
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The UK plans to roll out "immunity passports" to Brits who have already contracted the COVID-19 disease in order to allow them to return to "normal life," the Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Thursday.

"We are looking at an immunity certificate," Hancock told a Downing Street press conference.

"How people who have had the disease have got the antibodies and then have immunity can show that and therefore get back as much as possible to normal life,"

He added: "That is something we will be doing and will look at but it is too early in the science… to be able to put clarity around that."

The UK has already ordered millions of antibody tests. However, the tests have so far proven ineffective and the government has yet to approve them for use.

"The early results of some of them have not performed well," Hancock said.

"But we hope the later tests we have got are reliable enough for people to be confident in using."

Hancock said that hundreds of thousands of tests could take place every day once an antibody test is identified.

However, coronavirus testing has so far had mixed success around the world. Spain was recently forced to return tens of thousands of rapid coronavirus tests from a Chinese company after they were found to provide inconsistent results.

Some tests have also reportedly demonstrated false positives, detecting antibodies to other, much more common coronaviruses.

Scientists also remain unsure about the extent to which past infection with the virus can prevent reinfection and for how long immunity will remain.

Germany is also examining the possibility of issuing immunity passports.

Researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Germany plan to send out hundreds of thousands of antibody tests over the coming weeks that could allow people to break free of the lockdowns, Der Spiegel reported on Friday.

If the project is approved, the researchers will test 100,000 people at a time starting in early April, Der Spiegel said.

The tests are designed to detect whether a person has developed antibodies to the COVID-19 virus, indicating that they were at one time a carrier and may have built up immunity.

A positive test could allow the person to leave the lockdown while many positive tests could allow governments to ease restrictions in areas with "herd immunity."

Gerard Krause, the epidemiologist leading the project, told the magazine that people who are immune "could be given a type of vaccination card that, for example, allows them to be exempted" from "restrictions on their work."

Germany has one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the world, which some experts and commentators have said is a result of the extensive testing rolled out by Chancellor Angel Merkel's government.

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