ESR Moving Toward New Smart Covid-19 Testing

Scientific agency ESR is moving closer to new types of tests that will quickly reveal whether someone has Covid-19 or how widely the virus circulates in a community.

In a lengthy interview with the Herald, ESR’s new CEO Peter Lennox said his staff was actively examining saliva tests, along with serological or antibody tests.

Saliva tests may be more sensitive and effective, and less invasive, than the nasal swabs kiwis are used to.

Scientists in New Zealand have already suggested that border workers could be excellent candidates for using rapid and minimally invasive techniques, such as the SalviaDirect method developed by Nathan Grubaugh and Anne Wyllie at Yale University in the US.

That could mean that staff working in managed isolation and quarantine facilities submit a saliva sample every day, or every few days, along with routine temperature checks and health questionnaires.

SalivaDirect, which recently received emergency use clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was ideal for groups of people who needed repeat testing.

“New Zealand’s Covid-19 and ESR testing labs are already considering saliva testing and are in communication with various groups such as the Yale School of Public Health,” Lennox said.

“However, more research is needed to ensure the accuracy and feasibility of any saliva test before it is offered in New Zealand.”

Serological tests, meanwhile, were blood tests that could show whether a person may have ever been infected without knowing it, revealing chains hidden in outbreaks with mysterious sources.

They had the potential to identify those who were infected within a few minutes, allowing them to isolate themselves and avoid infecting others.

“These are becoming more important as the pandemic progresses and we are looking to find those people who have had the disease but did not know they were sick,” Lennox said.

“There are many such tests out there and understanding the value of the various testing options will be important in understanding how they can best be applied.

“ESR has been evaluating various tests. Also, we are awaiting ethics around a study in the area of ​​serology, so keep your eyes peeled for this.”

Another area ESR is exploring further was the possibility of sewage stations being used for Covid-19 surveillance at the community level.

“The message here is that our team is working hard on this research project, but it is very much a research project and will take place for 18 months,” Lennox said.

“The main message is that the research is progressing, but the data from the sample collection is not yet actionable.

“But we are working with the Ministry of Health to feed any intelligence from the investigation in a proper way and see where we can deploy our limited resources within the investigation.”

For example, he said, if the monitoring shows a positive result, that will be passed to the ministry, with warnings about the use of this data.

“The overall long-term goal is to have robust and reliable tools for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater, which can be used to identify any unrecognized Covid-19 infection in New Zealand,” he said.

“We also want to measure how infectious it is in wastewater and the persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater.”

But before that could be done, a proper methodology had to be developed.

“As part of the method validation work and following the pool of new cases in the community, sewage samples are now being collected from other locations in Auckland and from a variety of other regions in New Zealand and submitted to ESR for your analysis “.

The ESR has played a leading role in New Zealand’s public health response to Covid-19, processing thousands of tests to date and sequencing or decoding genomes from more than 850 positive samples, 93 of which come from the August group. from Auckland.

“When the pandemic hit, ESR quickly saw what more investment was needed in this area with the purchase of new equipment,” Lennox said.

“We are currently investigating which investment would best enhance the team’s efforts in the future.”