The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) started distributing saliva COVID-19 test kits to health workers Monday in order to intensify its pilot study as recommended by the Department of Health (DOH).

PRC Molecular Laboratory head Dr. Paulyn Jean Ubial said at least 1,000 health workers will be tested using the saliva test, with an accompanying swab test for validation.

“We expect all results will be returned because the participants for the study are health workers and they are tested regularly. When they return it, we will run the results and have them hopefully Monday or Friday next week,” Ubial said in Filipino.

The PRC official said that it had earlier tested 238 participants for its study but the Health department said it was not enough.

“Sa lahat po ng studies na tinignan naming gumawa ang Australia, Thailand, Japan, less than 200 nga ‘yung sample size nila, the result was accepted by their expert panel (Of all the studies we looked at are those in Australia, Thailand, and Japan. Their sample size was less than 200. The result was accepted by their expert panel),” Ubial said.

“Nung nagsubmit naman kami ng test, aprubado ng UP (University of the Philippines) Ethics Review Board ‘yung sample size and mga scientists naman nag-approve nun. Hindi po naming maintindihan bakit pagdating sa DOH health technology council ay kelangan dagdagan pa (When we submitted the test, the UP Ethics Review Board approved the sample size and the scientists approved it too. We do not understand why the DOH health technology council required us to add more),” she added.

Ubial said that the saliva COVID-19 test is 50 percent cheaper than the swab test.

Meanwhile, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the Health department is waiting for the PRC to comply with the recommendations for their study in order to register the saliva COVID-19 testing kits with the Food and Drug Administration.

“Minabuti pa ng recomendasyon ng laboratory expert panel ng DOH na ipagpatuloy ang pagaaral dahil mayroon pa tayong kulang na aspeto na nakita so ngayon po ginagawa ng PRC ‘yung additional further study at kausap natin sila after this week matatapos na so hopefully we can see the results (The recommendation of the DOH laboratory expert panel was to continue the study because they are some missing aspects, so now the PRC is doing further study and we will talk to them after this week so that we can see the results),” Vergeire said.

“’Yun na lang po ang iniintay natin noh makatapos ang PRC ng mga rekomendasyon na isama sa pagaaral nila and also ‘yung pagreregister ng Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doon sa testing kit na ginagamit nila and that it can also be used dun sa saliva specimen (That is all we are waiting for, that r the PRC completes the recommendations to include in their study and also the registration of FDA in the testing kit they use, and that it can also be used in the saliva specimen),” she added.