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Of: TT
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Photo: Stina Stjernkvist / TT
In the Stockholm Region, self-sampling for covid-19 is still based solely on throat samples. Stock Photography.
It will be another “few weeks” before the Stockholm Region can replace the criticized sampling method for covid-19.
In Stockholm County, people suspected of covid-19 are offered a test in which they scratch their throat with a spinning top. But such a method “is not recommended,” writes the Swedish Public Health Agency in a report released just over two weeks ago. If the throat sample is not combined with a saliva sample or is scraped from the nasal cavity, there is a risk that the test will not miss infected people.
According to the Swedish Public Health Agency, only the Stockholm Region still uses the criticized test method.
– We are working to adapt our sampling instructions to the new recommendations. But at the same time, we have many other problems to address in view of the infection situation, so we must prioritize the resources we have, says Claes Ruth, who is head of the Laboratory at the University of Karolinska and responsible for testing of covid in the Stockholm Region.
Delays weeks
TT: When will sampling be done according to the Swedish Public Health Agency recommendations?
– I can’t answer that with my arm outstretched. I can check it out, says Claes Ruth.
His colleague Tobias Allander, director of operations for the department of clinical microbiology, later responds in an email to TT that a more secure test method will be introduced “in a few weeks.” The plan is then to introduce triple throat, nose and saliva sampling.
Good knowledge of history
TT: How many false negative results do you expect throat tests to have obtained so far?
– It will be a very academic exercise to try to do that kind of post-calculus. There is no one hundred percent proof. It has to be seen in light of the fact that we must also present the massive tests that we have conducted, which is also a value in itself.
TT: But can’t it be important knowledge to have an idea of the infection situation?
– I think the most important thing right now is that we continue to maintain as much testing capacity as possible and try to manage the infection situation, where we have rapidly increasing infection rates in the here and now. We have a pretty good grasp of the history, both through large-scale PCR tests (for ongoing infections) and antibodies, says Claes Ruth.
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