A rapid Novel Coronavirus test has been approved by New York State Department of Health officials.
A rapid saliva test used to diagnose COVID-19 has been approved, and will be used on SUNY campuses around the state.
The saliva tests will be used with another form of coronavirus screening called pooled surveillance testing.
That allows a college to run multiple samples at one time.
The pooled testing allows for about 10-25 people to be screened in one test. The tests use swabs to obtain saliva instead of inserting a swab into a person’s nose.
The people being tested can swab themselves, too. Pooled saliva tests are said to be a significant improvement over the old methodology.
The way it works is 10-25 swabs are tested as a batch. If they come back negative – that’s the end of the line. However, if it comes back positive – each specimen is tested individually to determine who had the positive result in that batch.
Experts say it’s more efficient.
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