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

Abstract

Purpose: 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.

Methods: Paired swabs from 1119 participants were included. RT-PCR were used to detect SARS-CoV-2 in both swab samples.

Results: 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.

Conclusion: 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.

Keywords: Combined swab; Covid-19; Nasal midturbinate; Oropharyngeal; SARS-CoV-2; Self-swab.