Robert F. ServiceScience’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.First, a technician pushes a pencil-length swab to the very back of your nasal passages.
Then you pay $100 or more, and wait days for an answer. But faster, cheaper, more pleasant ways to test for the novel coronavirus are coming online.
This month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for two tests that sample saliva instead of nasal fluid, and more innovations are likely after FDA relaxed rules to allow new tests to be adopted more quickly.