Arizona State University in the US has completed its one-millionth Covid-19 saliva test, which was discovered and developed by the university. Almost 40% of the tests have been given to ASU students, employees and partners. While nasal swab sample collection is more risky for healthcare staff, as it requires them to come in close contact with a possibly sick, unmasked individual, the saliva-based tests allows them to maintain social distance as the subject collects the sample temselves. In January, ASU recorded the maximum number of samples processed in one month, which stood at 131,423.
Grey Bruce Public Health in Ontario, Canada has warned against the usage of rapid antigen testing for Covid-19 diagnosis upon developing any symptoms. Rapid antigen test should not be used as a detection tool for testing symptomatic individuals as it has an increased rate of failure, the health unit noted. Such tests are not deemed reliable to confirm a positive or negative Covid-19 result in symptomatic people.
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A team at the Angeles University Foundation Center for Advanced Research and Innovation (AUF-CARI) in Central Luzon, Philippines is a number of different Covid-19 test kits. One test kit can identify an individual’s immune response against Covid-19 from using blood samples, and two saliva-based test kits have been developed – one antigen test, and one antibody test. The tests have been shown to have a precision of 90% in clinical validation.
