Combined nasal- and oropharyngeal self-swab provides equivalent performance compared to professionally collected oropharyngeal swabs in detecting SARS-CoV-2 in a real-life setting

• Published in: Journal of virological methods Vol. 313; p. 114667
• Main Authors: Hørlyck, Sofie, Nielsen, Sofie Holdflod, Gress, Tobias, Schneider, Uffe, Martel, Cyril Jean-Marie, Steenhard, Nina, Gredal, Niels Tobias, Mortensen, Shila, Cohen, Arieh S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.03.2023
• Subjects: Combined swab; Covid-19; COVID-19 - diagnosis; Humans; Nasal midturbinate; Nasopharynx; Oropharyngeal; Oropharynx; SARS-CoV-2; SARS-CoV-2 - genetics; Self-swab; Specimen Handling - methods; Self-swab; Oropharyngeal; SARS-CoV-2; Covid-19; Combined swab; Nasal midturbinate
• ISSN: 0166-0934; 1879-0984
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jviromet.2022.114667

To investigate the performance of a combined nasal midturbinate- and oropharyngeal (NAOP) self-swab compared to a deep oropharyngeal (OP) swab by health care workers (HCW) in detecting SARS-CoV-2 in a real-life setting. Paired swabs from 1119 participants were included. RT-PCR were used to detect SARS-CoV-2 in both swab samples. 330 participants tested positive. The sensitivity of the combined self-swab and OP swab was 96.9 % and 95.4 % respectively, whereas the Ct-values for self-swabs were significantly lower compared to OP swabs. The combined NAOP self-swab outperformed the OP swab and thus, the NAOP self-swab may be an alternative sampling method under the given circumstances. •The study cohort included both symptomatic and asymptomatic participants.•SARS-CoV-2 was detected via RT-PCR for both sampling methods.•Sensitivity of the self-swab and oropharyngeal swab was 96.9 % and 95.4 % respectively.•Ct-values for self-swabs were significantly lower compared to oropharyngeal swabs.