<p>Pick up charges specific to COVID- RT-PCR as applicable will be added to your booking during checkout This test is useful for the detection of Covid-19 virus. Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms,fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome and kidney failure. There are two main ways to test for infection with SARS-CoV2 (the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease). The first is a very sensitive test that looks for the RNA of the virus using a technique called RT-PCR. This can detect as little as one virus particle in swabs taken from inside the mouth or nose. A second type of test measures the antibody responses to virus in blood serum. There are many virus components that our bodies make many different antibodies against. Some antibody is very useful, and kills the virus or stops infection, and some is less useful, binding to common parts of the virus but without helping our defences. The test itself is very simple: coat a test tube with a virus &ldquo;mash&rdquo; or ideally purified virus components, then add a tiny amount of a very diluted blood sample from the patient and let any antibodies bind to the test tube. Finally, develop the test to see if any antibodies are present. At the start of the outbreak, most countries relied RT-PCR tests because these were fastest to develop. More antibody tests are now becoming available, which will increase reported cases as gaps are filled. Big differences in the groups being tested still make overall numbers between countries hard to compare. The UK was very quick to develop an RT-PCR test and this remains the primary method, using a network of labs doing the same standardised test. This allows for consistent data but has stretched capacity from the vast scale of the outbreak and the speed of its development.</p>