We are encouraged by news that scientists at Yale University have developed a saliva-based laboratory diagnostic test to determine whether someone is infected with the novel coronavirus.

Just as encouraging is word that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the test an emergency use authorisation.

That, though, wasn’t the first such authorisation granted by the FDA. As in May this year news emerged that Rutgers University’s Clinical Genomics Laboratory received approval for its COVID-19 laboratory developed test.

The developments suggest to us increased acceptance of this mode of testing by the US health regulator.

The Yale scientists tell us that the authorisation makes the method immediately available to other diagnostic laboratories that want to start using the new test, which can be scaled up quickly for use across the US and, perhaps, beyond, in the coming weeks.

Yale explained that the saliva-based test, which it has named SalivaDirect, is being further validated as a test for asymptomatic individuals through a programme that tests players and staff from the National Basketball Association.

According to the university, SalivaDirect is simpler, less expensive, and less invasive than the traditional method for such testing, known as nasopharyngeal (NP) swabbing. The university also said that results so far have found that SalivaDirect is highly sensitive and yields similar outcomes as NP swabbing.

In our report on this interesting development on Monday we noted that the announcement came on the same weekend when the Jamaican Government informed us that non-residents visiting the island from the United States, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico — which have all been designated as high-risk locations — are now required to obtain COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests prior to arrival.

The requirement, the Ministry of Health and Wellness said, applies to all non-residents 12 years and older, including those who are business travellers, entering the island on or after August 20 from the locations currently designated as high-risk by the Jamaican health authorities.

“They are required to do the test within 10 days prior to their intended date of travel to Jamaica,” the ministry said, adding that everyone applying to enter on www.visitjamaica.com from the designated high-risk locations will be required to upload their COVID-19 PCR test certificate as part of the application process.

The ministry also reminded us that this requirement was already in effect for non-residents from the states of Arizona, Florida, New York, and Texas in the United States.

We don’t deny the fact that the PCR test is, as the scientists put it, more sensitive, given that it searches samples for the virus’s genetic material. That, though, the health experts tell us, require that the samples be sent to laboratories for amplification. The upshot is that the PCR test requires more time and resources.

When one adds the fact that the saliva-based test, which costs approximately US$10, is much more affordable than the PCR that can run anywhere from US$50 to US$200, it makes sense, we believe, for the authorities here to seriously examine using the saliva-based test in an effort to get results more quickly and reduce the financial impact on individuals and the country.

Over to the health authorities.