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Friday, March 29, 2024

Hard-hit Lombardy starts antibody tests

Duration: 01:13s 0 shares 2 views

Hard-hit Lombardy starts antibody tests
Hard-hit Lombardy starts antibody tests

The northern Italian region of Lombardy, at the epicenter of Europe's outbreak, has begun its antibody testing programme as it looks to open up its economy after weeks of lockdown.

Joe Davies reports.

The region of Lombardy in northern Italy has been the epicenter of the European outbreak.

On Thursday (April 23), it began an antibody testing program as it looked to begin opening up its economy after weeks of lockdown.

Authorities hope it'll give them a clearer picture of the spread of the virus, and show who has already had it.

Luca Dure is the mayor of Cisliano.

(SOUNDBITE) (Italian) MAYOR OF CISLIANO, LUCA DURE, SAYING: "We started to do serology tests because we needed to have answers and to give answers.

Our volunteers help the most fragile people, the elderly, and they bring them meals and groceries at home.

We had the doubt that those volunteers carrying on these services could have been, in some way, in contact with the virus and this worried us a lot.

So we tried to give some answers." Lombardy is the latest of a patchwork of individual testing programmes in Italy.

The neighboring regions of Veneto and Emilia Romagna began their own earlier this month.

The number of deaths and infections have started to flatten out in Italy.

But in the absence of a cure or a vaccine, a successful antibody testing program offers some hope of a way out of lockdown and a pathway to a reboot of the economy.

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