Duterte on saliva COVID-19 test: Gordon said it's 99% accurate, let's use it

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night said the country should use COVID-19 tests using the saliva, a cheaper and easier process to be tested for the novelcoronavirus.

Duterte was addressing the need for Filipinos to continue following quarantine protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19 when he talked about the inconvenient swabbing with the gold standard RT-PCR tests.

"Everytime na kinakalikut yung ilong ko nag mumura ako kasi masakit. Pero may bago raw, sabi ni Gordon na ang swabbing sa saliva ay 99 percent. O 'di yan ang gagamitin natin," Duterte said.

In August last year, the Department of Health said the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine was studying the use of saliva-based COVID-19 tests.

Months later, the DOH said the study was still incomplete.

Gordon also said in October 2020 that the Red Cross was gearing up for the rollout of a 2,000-peso saliva test for COVID-19, but added that the ball was with the DOH.

Testing czar Secretary Vince Dizon and private sector initiative Project ARK have likewise vouched for saliva and breath testing for COVID-19. 

A total of 6.43 million individuals in the country had, so far, undergone COVID-19 tests that were facilitated by 179 testing laboratories.

Of this number, 478,761 tested positive for the virus—448,279 recovered, 9,263 died, and 21,219 are still active cases. -NB, GMA News