FDA authorizes saliva test for COVID-19

The AP (4/13, Perrone) reports Rutgers University researchers “have received U.S. government clearance for the first saliva test to help diagnose COVID-19, a new approach that could help expand testing options and reduce risks of infection for health care workers.” The FDA “authorized the test under its emergency powers to quickly clear new tests and therapies to fight the outbreak.” The university “tested the accuracy of its method by taking both saliva and swab samples from 60 patients” and found “patients’ saliva samples had a 100% match with results from the swabs.” In its authorization letter, the FDA “said the test should only be performed ‘in a health care setting under the supervision of a trained health care provider.’”

The Hill (4/13, Coleman) reports that with this test, patients “will spit in a tube several times and give it to the health professional for testing, making it less risky for them to get infected, Andrew Brooks, the chief operating officer and director of technology development at the Rutgers’ lab, said in the university’s release.” Brooks said, “Saliva testing will help with the global shortage of swabs for sampling and increase testing of patients, and it will not require health care professionals to be put at risk to collect samples. ... Saliva testing will also be important for people who are in quarantine because they don’t know how long it will be until they are no longer infectious.”