‘It’s easy’: COVID-19 saliva tests now in Beaufort, Jasper Co. through DHEC pilot project
A new COVID-19 test that’s as easy as spitting into a tube is now available in Beaufort and Jasper counties.
Free saliva testing kits are being offered to local residents as part of a S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control pilot project.
The initiative began Monday, according to state Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort).
“This could be a real game-changer,” Davis said in an interview Thursday. “You can get a great number of tests done in less time.”
The University of South Carolina has used saliva testing at its Columbia campus to identify hundreds of COVID-19 cases among students this semester.
DHEC, meanwhile, has been working to offer the tests elsewhere in the state.
Saliva tests are cheaper and less invasive than nasal swab tests, Davis said.
“Obviously if this pilot is successful, then we would hope to expand it,” said Taylor Lee, public health director of DHEC’s Lowcountry region.
How can you get a kit?
There’s a limited supply of saliva tests, Lee said. DHEC is encouraging people to call their local health departments to ask if they have any.
The health departments in both Beaufort and Jasper counties had saliva tests on hand as of early Thursday, staffers confirmed.
Residents can call the Beaufort office at 843-525-7615 or the Jasper office at 843-726-7788.
If tests are available, people can pick them up at the health departments after filling out a short questionnaire.
Later at home, all they have to do is spit in a tube, then use DHEC-provided “shipping materials” to send their saliva to a lab.
Results are expected in 24 to 72 hours, Lee said.
Staffers at the health departments Thursday said they don’t know how many kits their offices have.
Davis, chair of the S.C. Senate’s testing and tracing subcommittee, said it’s crucial for DHEC to promote the saliva tests beyond its website. As of Wednesday, the agency had not made a statewide announcement about the pilot project, at least this week.
The initiative is not exclusive to the Lowcountry, Lee added.
“You need to get information out to the public proactively,” Davis said. “You can’t be passive and sit back and expect that people are going to do this on their own initiative. I mean, people are living their lives.”
‘It’s easy, simple’
Widespread COVID-19 testing is key to identifying both symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus.
Because people can spread the deadly pathogen without feeling sick, testing is one of the few ways DHEC can squelch future outbreaks.
The number of coronavirus tests conducted in Beaufort County dropped in late August, and Lee on Thursday acknowledged that fewer people are getting tested around the Lowcountry as a whole.
“We call it ‘COVID fatigue,’” he said.
But, he added, “testing is just as important today as it was yesterday, or it was last week, or it was three months ago.”
While COVD-19 conditions have improved in Beaufort County, experts fear a possible surge of infections as cooler weather sets in, flu season begins and kids return to school for face-to-face instruction.
Easier, more accessible testing could help mitigate further disease spread, Davis said.
That’s where saliva tests come in.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Aug. 15 issued an emergency use authorization to the Yale School of Public Health for a new saliva test that was “open source,” meaning other diagnostic labs across the country could use it.
In a news release at the time, the FDA said the test didn’t require nasopharyngeal swabs, which have been prone to shortages throughout the pandemic.
Dr. Brannon Traxler, DHEC’s interim director of public health, told agency board members last week that DHEC’s public lab had received approval to use the Yale model.
Davis said officials can now shift to a more widespread testing strategy, in an attempt to quickly identify asymptomatic carriers.
“Hopefully people will see that it’s easy, simple,” Davis said.
This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 4:30 AM.
