As the community spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus continues in Iowa, you might have seen a category on the state’s dashboard website called “serology testing.”

Greene County Public Health Director Becky Wolf says serology tests are different from a COVID-19 test. Wolf explains the COVID-19 test uses a nasal swab through the nose to the back of the throat as the sample and a serology test is taken from someone’s blood.

“It determines if there’s what we call ‘antibodies’ in that blood. What it does is it tells us that someone was recently infected with COVID-19. It doesn’t tell us when they were infected, when they recovered, anything like that.”    

Wolf notes sometimes the serology test is done in conjunction with the COVID-19 nasal test, but she says it’s a useful test for individuals that want to help those who have the virus.

“Somebody wants to donate blood for the convalescent plasma donation to help other people that are very, very ill with COVID-19.”

As of Thursday, the state’s dashboard reports one serology case for Greene County.