Malacaōang welcomes 99% success rate of saliva-based Covid-19 test

Malacaōang welcomed reports of a saliva-based Covid-19 test with a 99 percent detection rate in the US.

National Task Force Against Covid-19 deputy chief implementer Vivencio Dizon urged regulatory agencies to fast-track validation for saliva testing so guidelines can be issued soon.

The saliva test, proposed by the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), is seen as an alternative to expensive swab tests and could reduce costs with pooled testing of five specimens per PCR kit.

Processing time for saliva samples is only three hours compared to six to seven hours for swab tests.