MANILA – The use of self-administered Covid-19 test kits does not need healthcare workers to conduct nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal swab collection.
Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) Laboratory Chief Armando Tandoc III noted that the test kits will need nasal samples only.
“Kapag po nasal, galing lamang po ito sa harapan o kaya hanggang gitnang bahagi ng ilong na maaaring kunin sa sarili o kung sa may kapansanan o sa mga bata ay maaaring kunin ng isang nakakatanda (When you say nasal, the sample is from the front or up to middle part of the nose of an individual, in case of children or persons with disabilities any adult can assist them),” Tandoc said.
Some test kits will require saliva samples, he added.
“So, sa pagsagawa naman po ng test mismo, may mga instruction naman na susundin kung paanong ilagay iyong sample sa cartridge at kung gaano katagal iyong hihintayin bago magkaroon ng resulta (in performing the test, there are instructions on how to place the sample in the cartridge and how long you need to wait for the result),” he said.
The Department of Health previous said it will issue guidelines on the proper usage of the self-administered or home test kits.
The Food Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday said it approved two kits — the “Panbio Covid-19 Antigen Self-Test” of Abbott which will be available in boxes of 1, 4, 10, and 20 tests and “SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Test” of Labnovation which may be bought in boxes of 2, 5, and 20 tests.
Aside from the two approved kits, the FDA endorsed 31 additional kits to the RITM.
Tandoc stressed that kits users “must carefully read and follow” the instructions that come with them.
“Kapag po kasi hindi nasunod ito mula sa pagkolekta hanggang sa paggawa ng test at pag-interpret dito, maaring makaapekto po sa accuracy (If the instructions are not followed starting from sample collection up to testing and interpretation, the accuracy might be affected),” he said.
