MANILA, Philippines —The guidelines on the use and administration of Saliva-based Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing for COVID-19 have been released, the Department of Health (DOH) said Tuesday.
Under Department Memorandum (DM) No. 2021-0161, only licensed COVID-19 laboratories certified by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) are allowed to perform saliva-based RT-PCR.
It also said laboratories or facilities may only use test kits that have passed performance validation by the RITM or other RITM-recognized laboratories, as the kits should likewise have a special certification from the Food and Drug Administration.
“Point-of-care clin…
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