DOH: 2 PH studies on COVID saliva test under way

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday said it recognized the potential use of saliva as a specimen for new coronavirus testing.

Currently, the DOH said in a statement, there are two local studies on the potential of saliva for detecting SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that causes the severe respiratory disease COVID-19.

The DOH said the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and the Philippine Red Cross were doing the studies.

“Recently there has been growing evidence [of] the potential use of saliva as an alternative specimen for COVID-19 testing and the DOH recognizes the potential use of saliva as a specimen for SARS-CoV-2 detection through RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction),” the DOH said.

It said RITM had yet to conclude its study, and it was waiting for the Red Cross to reply to a letter containing its and the COVID-19 expert panel’s recommendations following initial results of the agency’s study.

New infections

But Sen. Richard Gordon, Red Cross chair, said on Tuesday that the humanitarian agency had not received any letter from the DOH.

As of press time on Tuesday, the DOH had not yet responded to questions about the date it sent the letter to the Red Cross.

Earlier on Tuesday, the DOH reported 937 additional coronavirus infections, raising the overall number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country to 479,693.

The DOH said 114 more patients had recovered, bringing the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 448,375.

But the death toll rose to 9,321 with the deaths of 58 more patients.

The deaths and recoveries left the country with 21,997 active cases.

—Patricia Denise M. Chiu