New coronavirus test: nasal or oral swab sampling

On February 5, 2020, the General Office of the National Health Commission officially issued the Notice on Printing and Distributing the Diagnosis and Treatment Plan of Pneumonia Infection in novel coronavirus (Trial 5), which mentioned that novel coronavirus nucleic acid can be detected in nasopharyngeal swab, sputum, lower respiratory tract secretion, blood, feces and other specimens. So how to sample nasal swab or oral swab correctly?

1. Sampling method of throat swab: The accuracy of throat swab detection is relatively high. This detection method mainly detects the bacteria in the throat of patients. If the test result is positive, it means that they are infected with virus. When the human body is in a healthy condition, there are many normal oral flora in the throat, which will not contain pathogenic bacteria. If the immunity of the human body declines, the pathogenic bacteria will lead to human infection. At this time, collecting the bacteria in the throat of the patient can determine the health status of the patient. Of course, there may be false negatives, which are mainly caused by fewer bacteria in the oral cavity at the early stage of infection, or because pathogenic bacteria have invaded the lower respiratory tract. In order to ensure the accuracy of detection, blood tests can be taken.(recommended)

(1) to assist patients to take appropriate posture, rinse with water; (2) Ask the patient to tilt his head slightly, open his mouth and make an “ah” sound, and quickly wipe the two palatal arches, pharynx and tonsils; (3) Immerse the cotton swab head into the sampling solution, contact the pipe wall several times to keep as many samples as possible in the sampling solution, discard the cotton swab, clamp the tail, and close the plug.

2. Sampling method of nasal swab:

(1) fully soak the swab in the sampling liquid, lift the swab away from the liquid surface, and repeatedly squeeze it on the pipe wall several times; (2) Let the patient’s head relax naturally, slowly rotate the swab against the nostril wall, make it enter the patient’s first nostril to the nose and palate, and then take it out slowly while wiping and rotating. Wipe the other nostril with the same swab in the same way; (3) Put the nose swab into the sampling tube where the throat swab has been collected, contact the head of the swab with the tube wall several times to keep as many samples as possible in the sampling solution, discard the swab, pinch the tail and tighten the plug.