![]() For symptomatic and asymptomatic pediatric patients not previously diagnosed with COVID-19, the performances of saliva and NPS were comparable (PPA, 82.4% versus 85.3%). Saliva yielded detection of 10 positive cases that were negative by NPS. The values for positive percent agreement (PPA) for saliva and NPS were 81.4% (79/97) and 89.7% (87/97), respectively. The overall concordances for saliva and NPS were 91.0% (273/300) and 94.7% (284/300), respectively. Performance of saliva and NPS was compared against the total number of positives regardless of specimen type. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in 32.2% (97/300) of the individuals using the TaqPath COVID-19 Combo kit (Thermo Fisher). We prospectively collected paired NPS and saliva samples from a total of 300 unique adult and pediatric patients. ![]() The simple and painless process of saliva collection allows for widespread testing, but enthusiasm is hampered by variable performance compared to that of nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) samples. ![]() Testing efforts for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have been burdened by the scarcity of testing materials and personal protective equipment for health care workers.
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