No approved self-administered COVID-19 saliva test kits yet —DOH

The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday said that there are no approved self-administered saliva test kits to detect COVID-19 yet in the country.

“Wala pang inaaprubahan ang [Food and Drug Administration] sa ganito. Hintayin natin ang FDA,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a media briefing.

[For now, there is no approved self-administered saliva test kits yet. The FDA has not approved anything like that yet. We will wait for the FDA first.]

Even after FDA’s approval, Vergeire said, the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) will need to give its final approval as well before their use will be allowed.

“The final protocol would be from the RITM. Sila ang nagbibigay [ng guidelines] kung paano natin gagamitin at kung acceptable talaga yung specificity and sensitivity or the accuracy of these different types of testing methodologies,” she said.

[The final protocol would be from the RITM. They are the ones who will give guidelines on how we will use this as well as if this is acceptable in terms of specificity, sensitivity and accuracy of these different types of testing methodologies.]

On Tuesday, DOH released guidelines on the use and administration of Saliva-based Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) for COVID-19.

Only licensed COVID-19 testing laboratories certified by the RITM are allowed to perform tests using saliva specimen.

In January, the DOH allowed the Philippine Red Cross to use saliva-based COVID-19 tests. — BM, GMA News