A study trial of a new “no-swab” test for COVID-19 is kicking off in Britain. Health officials there say participants are able to collect their saliva sample from the comfort of their own home.
This saliva test has shown itself, so far, to be very promising. It was developed by a British molecular diagnostics company called Optigene. And it’s about to be thoroughly tested in this new trial taking place in southern England.
The trial will run for about four weeks and involves more than 14,000 participants. Each week participants will be sent test vials to their homes or workplaces. They’ll spit into those vials and the samples will be sent off to be analyzed. They’ll get their test results back in about 48 hours.
Now what I like about this trial is that it should spot folks who have the virus but who don’t show any symptoms. So I expect we’ll get some solid data regarding how many folks are actually asymptomatic.
Health officials are predicting that a saliva test will increase testing because it’s easy and way less invasive. And that makes sense.
Swab testing can be extremely uncomfortable, because a swab has to reach to the back of the throat or deep into nasal passages. It can make people gag, cough or sneeze. So I think most folks would prefer to be tested in the safety of their own home and skip driving to a testing site where they might be potentially exposed to the virus.
Right now, up to 20% of swab tests are false negatives – that’s what John Hopkins University has found. And that could be because of the difficulty of swabbing people.
Now swab tests use the standard polymerase chain reaction or PCR method. Whereas this saliva test uses a different technique, called RT-Lamp, to look for genetic material of the coronavirus.
As to how accurate this salvia test will be, well, no data was given. But this trial should help to answer that question. And it’ll also tell us if saliva testing is able to detect cases earlier with routine at-home testing.
Additional Coronavirus information and resources:
Click here for a page with resources including a COVID-19 overview from the CDC, details on cases in Michigan, a timeline of Governor Gretchen Whitmer's orders since the outbreak, coronavirus' impact on Southeast Michigan, and links to more information from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC and the WHO.
View a global coronavirus tracker with data from Johns Hopkins University.
Find out how you can help businesses and restaurants struggling during the pandemic.
Also, get information about Rebound Mid Michigan, with stories, information and more about coming back from COVID-19
Join the Rebound Mid Michigan Facebook Group.
See complete coverage on our Coronavirus Continuing Coverage page.
