University of Georgia officials said Monday they will increasingly rely on saliva-based testing for its voluntary COVID-19 surveillance program for students and employees.
The university’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory has developed a saliva-based test that officials say has proved to be just as reliable as the nasopharyngeal swabs that have been used at the Legion Field surveillance site. Accurate results will be provided within 24-72 hours, they said.
“The switch to saliva-based testing will be a major improvement on many levels. Saliva is certainly more comfortable, and the sample kit is user-friendly and more of a closed process. The kits developed for the lab require only 1 ml (whereas the Vault testing we’ve used at previous pop-ups requires 5 ml),” said Dr. Garth Russo, executive director of the University Health Center.
UGA will use its remaining supply of its nasopharyngeal test kits before switching to the saliva-based kits.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Georgia Tech used a saliva-based test that it developed last semester.
UGA also plans to increase its testing capacity at the Legion Field site and pop-up locations across campus will be expanded to accommodate up to 1,500 tests per day.
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