ABSTRACT
A novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, previously provisionally named 2019 novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV), has been identified as the cause of respiratory infection including severe pneumonia outbreak that started in Wuhan, China in late 2019, and has since become a global pandemic. Nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) and oropharyngeal swab (OPS) samples are widely accepted as specimens for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of saliva specimens might decrease the risk of nosocomial transmission of COVID-19 and is ideal for situations in which NPS or OPS specimen collection may be impractical. Besides contrived saliva samples, deidentified leftover patient NPS and saliva samples were used in the study. Clinical samples were collected from patients who had previously been tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Paired NPS and saliva samples were collected at the same time.
