A very recent Yale study suggests promises for saliva-based detection:
“While saliva has shown promise for SARS-CoV-2 detection, very few studies have directly compared it to the current gold standard, nasopharyngeal (NP) swab. So, we compared NP and saliva samples from COVID-19 patients and self-collected samples from asymptomatic healthcare workers”
“COVID-19 patients: SARS-CoV-2 detection from saliva is comparable to (or better than!) NP swabs and more consistent over time ...”
“Plus, the detection of SARS-CoV-2 from the saliva of two asymptomatic healthcare workers (...and counting!) who tested negative from their NP swabs suggests that saliva could be a viable alternative for identifying mild or subclinical infections.”
“While saliva has shown promise for SARS-CoV-2 detection, very few studies have directly compared it to the current gold standard, nasopharyngeal (NP) swab. So, we compared NP and saliva samples from COVID-19 patients and self-collected samples from asymptomatic healthcare workers”
“COVID-19 patients: SARS-CoV-2 detection from saliva is comparable to (or better than!) NP swabs and more consistent over time ...”
“Plus, the detection of SARS-CoV-2 from the saliva of two asymptomatic healthcare workers (...and counting!) who tested negative from their NP swabs suggests that saliva could be a viable alternative for identifying mild or subclinical infections.”
https://twitter.com/awyllie13/status/1252996627217801218?s=2...