https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-08-31/c
Post# of 22456
The saliva tests did a better job of detecting the virus formally known as SARS-CoV-2, the researchers found. In the first five days after diagnosis, 81% of the saliva tests came back positive, compared with 71% of the nasopharyngeal tests. A similar gap remained through the 10 day after diagnosis.
In addition, the researchers detected more copies of the virus’ genetic material in patients’ saliva than in the samples taken from the back of their nasal cavities.