Researchers from Connecticut-based Yale University has created a new way to determine if a person has acquired SARS-CoV-2, causing COVID-19. It turns out, a person's saliva contains parts of the virus strands. Due to this conclusion, the university created its very own saliva-based COVID-19 test, and it is now approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Here's how scientists want people to use it.
Is there a SARS-CoV-2 virus in a person's saliva?
Truck driver Oswaldo Monroy, 62, is tested for COVID-19 at an International Brotherhood of Teamsters testing site, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Wilmington, near the Port of Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 25, 2020.
If a person wants to know whether he had acquired COVID-19, he must practice self-isolation and proceed to take a COVID-19 lab test. These tests include swabbing, rapid tests, or even blood tests.
In America, COVID-19 tests range at a starting price of $100. But starting soon, these tests could possibly downgrade as low as $10.
This was after researchers from the Yale School of Public Health created the SalivaDirect test. SalivaDirect test, as the name suggests, is a saliva-based COVID-19 test.
It allows patients and hospitals to know whether a person is COVID-19 positive or not through collecting mouth saliva. The test usually runs for less than three hours before identifying the final results. Yale also made sure that the test will not use any special collection device.
"The SalivaDirect test for rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 [the novel coronavirus] is yet another testing innovation game-changer that will reduce the demand for scarce testing resources," said Adm. Brett Giroir, the US official in charge of Covid-19 testing efforts.
How accurate is this Yale saliva-based COVID-19 test?
According to the Yale University press release, the SalivaDirect test results are the same as standard nasal test results 94 percent of the time.
It was also discovered that the tests agreed 97 percent of the time for positive samples and 100 percent on negative samples. Impressively, the tests did not produce any false results, compared to other similar COVID-19 tests today.
What's more impressive is that Yale officially sets this device in an 'open and available' status that hospitals and governments can reproduce.
U.S. Free COVID testing
A sign announces free testing for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at Revere Beach in Revere, Massachusetts, U.S., August 11, 2020.
On Saturday, Aug. 15, the SalivaDirect test has finally received its FDA-approved of an Emergency Use Authorization. This means that the Federal agency found this type of test with "variable performance."
So far, in the country, several groups demand free COVID testing for all. In this new creation of Yale, the wishes may soon come true.
ALSO READ: Bill Gates-funded Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine Begins Mid-Stage Trial; Can it Beat Russia's Sputnik V?
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Jamie Pancho
