Spit in a Tube and Mail It In: A New Frontier in Coronavirus Testing

FULLERTON, Calif. — The post-Thanksgiving rush for coronavirus testing is on: Pharmacies in the Southern California suburbs are advising customers lucky enough to score appointments that it could be four days before they receive results. In Chelsea, Mass., a line of people who hoped for testing, pelted by rain and wind, strung along an entire block early this week. In Atlanta, people have idled in cars, sometimes for hours, to get swabbed at drive-throughs.

Testing has long been one of the keys to controlling the spread of a virus that with the onset of winter is entering its most dangerous phase. Yet even as cases per capita have rocketed, securing a test has become enough of an ordeal that many people have been dissuaded from even trying.

That has begun to change in recent weeks as a handful of communities across the country have rolled out the first do-it-yourself home saliva tests, which require users to simply dribble into a test tube, seal it and send it to a lab. As the tests become widespread, they could provide a less-uncomfortable alternative to nasal swabs and enable more people to safely return to work and school in the months before a vaccine is widely available.

In California, Orange County, home to Disneyland and Surf City, last week kicked off an ambitious effort to distribute 500,000 home-use saliva test kits to its 3.4 million residents by the end of December. Its initial push has focused on Anaheim and Santa Ana, the two most populous cities where the pandemic has taken an outsize toll on the Latino and immigrant populations. ...

Minnesota, now with one of the highest rates of new cases in the country, became the first state, in early November, to offer at-home saliva testing for all residents, whether they have coronavirus symptoms or not.

Once a testing kit is ordered, it is typically shipped within 24 hours. During sample collection, users are supervised via Zoom by a health worker at Vault Health, the company contracted by Minnesota’s Health Department to manage the tests. Results are available in 24 to 48 hours. ...