The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday (April 6) issued guidelines for the use of the more affordable saliva-based RT-PCR test for COVID-19.
In accordance with Department Memorandum No. 2021-0161, only licensed Covid-19 laboratories that are certified by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) will be allowed to conduct the saliva-based RT-PCR test.
It also states that only RITM validated test kits and those certified by the Food and Drug Administration can be used.
Trained saliva specimen collectors are the only ones allowed to administer the test while the medical doctors read the results.
The DOH clarified that the RT-PCR swab test will still be considered the gold standard in COVID-19 testing.
Report from PTV News/NGS-jlo
