Dr Anthony Fauci says the concept of certificates of immunity to the coronavirus has been discussed in White House meetings.

The idea has already been floated in the UK and Germany as a way of easing lockdown measures and getting people back to work. He also confirmed that the requisite antibody tests will be available soon.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a key member of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, made the comments during an interview on CNN.

Speaking to Alisyn Camerota on New Day, Dr Fauci said that the idea of Americans carrying certificates that prove they tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies may “have some merit under certain circumstances.”

“That’s possible. It’s one of those things that we talk about when we want to make sure that we know who the vulnerable people are and not,” said Dr Fauci.

“Within a period of a week or so, we're going to have a rather large number of tests that are available,” he added.

This would be particularly important for healthcare workers. Said Dr Fauci: “If their antibody test is positive, one can formulate strategies about whether or not they would be at risk or vulnerable to getting re-infected. This would be important for health care workers, for first-line fighters.”

Dr Fauci also confirmed that both testing for Covid-19 and testing for antibodies would run concurrently and the former was not being sidelined in favour of the latter.

As of Saturday afternoon the US has 518,892 confirmed cases of coronavirus and has recorded 20,109 deaths.