Green pass, swabs and salivary tests: new limitations

Those who do not have the Green pass because they are not vaccinated, but hoped for rapid salivary antigen tests to be able to go to work, to the cinema, to the restaurant, to the gym, will have to put their hearts in peace: the Ministry of Health does not consider it suitable for obtaining green certification. In the circular published, recalls laleggepertutti.it, the dicastery led by Roberto Speranza warns that “rapid antigenic tests on saliva, on the basis of the available evidence, are not currently recommended as an alternative to oral-nasopharyngeal swabs, as they do not reach levels minimum acceptable sensitivity and specificity. Furthermore – it continues – salivary matrix antigenic tests are currently excluded from the common European list of rapid antigenic tests valid for obtaining the Covid-19 Green Certification. Some scientific evidence is emerging regarding the possible use of salivary antigenic tests based on measurement with laboratory instruments, which however are still being evaluated for such applications “. In other words: from what we read in the circular of the Ministry of Health, it will not be possible to obtain the Green pass on the basis salivary antigen tests The document signed by the Director General of Prevention d el ministry, Giovanni Rezza, specifies: “Molecular salivary tests can be used as part of screening activities in children involved in the Sars-CoV-2 circulation monitoring plan in the school setting, for the screening of case contacts in children even if the school is not part of the monitoring plan, in health and social-health workers in the context of scheduled screenings in the workplace or in fragile individuals (symptomatic or asymptomatic) with little ability to collaborate (for example elderly in RSA, disabled , people with autism spectrum disorders) “. In summary: yes to salivary molecular tests for children who attend school and who are involved in the Covid circulation monitoring plan. Yes to salivaries for health and social health workers for scheduled screening at work. Yes for the elderly hospitalized in RSA or for people with autism, that is, for people who find it difficult to do a normal nasopharyngeal swab. No to salivary antigen tests for anyone. It follows that health and social health workers who make salivary antigenic because they are not vaccinated, will not be able to have the Green pass and, therefore, will not be able to work. “it will not be necessary to carry out a confirmation test on a nasopharyngeal-oropharyngeal sample”, the experts recall. On the use of the molecular salivary test in the context of school screening, the circular points out that “it can also be carried out with self-sampling methods at domicile by the parents-guardians (if self-collection by the manufacturer is foreseen and in accordance with the legislation on medical devices and regional provisions), following a preventive training process to achieve the necessary confidence with the collection devices “.