Evaluation of A Novel Anterior Nasal Swab for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2.

BACKGROUND: During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, nasopharyngeal swabs, combined throat and nose swabs and saliva samples have been evaluated for SARS-CoV-2 detection using nucleic acid amplification tests (NAT). Literature on anterior nasal swabs is limited and comparative studies often group anterior nasal and mid-turbinate swabs together (Tsang et al., 2021). We investigated a novel anterior nasal swab that has been designed to standardised self-collection, maximise sample uptake and improve user comfort. We used combined throat and nose swabs and neat saliva samples as the comparators. RESULTS: The overall positive percentage agreement between the Rhinoswab™ and the combined throat and nose swab was 95.2% at day 2 post participant recruitment and 93.3% on day 4 post participant recruitment. This was favourable to the positive percentage agreement with saliva at the same time points. CONCLUSION: In our study the Rhinoswab™ performed equally well in comparison to a combined throat and nose swab for the laboratory detection of SARS-CoV-2 using nucleic acid amplification techniques.