Taipei, April 29 (CNA) Taiwan is expected to import up to 30 million home-use self-tests that can detect the COVID-19 virus in saliva after the country's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the move Friday.
The tests, all of the same brand made in South Korea, will be labeled with Chinese characters and packaged with Chinese instructions before being sold in Taiwan, the FDA said.
The Gmate COVID-19 Ag Saliva, as the test is called, will be the first saliva COVID-19 rapid test approved for home use in Taiwan.
The test is currently also sold in Australia and has a sensitivity of 95.83 percent and specificity of 99.6 percent compared to PCR tests, according to testing conducted in Taiwan, the FDA said.
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Import approved by Taiwan FDA
A total of 30 million tests are expected to be imported after an application to import the tests was approved on Friday, the FDA said.
Applications to import other home-use saliva rapid tests are also being processed, while domestically made tests are being evaluated for home use, the FDA said.
The move to import the tests came after Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said earlier on Friday that Taiwan will likely approve the purchase of a home-use self-test that can detect the COVID-19 virus in saliva.
The less invasive and easier to administer test is being reviewed out of consideration for children and other groups who find nasal swabs difficult, Chen said at a daily COVID-19 press conference.
Multiple lawmakers have also urged the government to import rapid saliva tests, including ruling Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜) and New Power Party legislators Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) and Claire Wang (王婉諭).
Wang said allowing the use of saliva self-tests will boost COVID-19 testing resources in Taiwan.
If Taiwan is moving in the direction of living with the virus, rapid testing procedures need to be simplified, Wang said.
Compared to rapid tests which require the insertion of a swab deep into the nose, the saliva test is less invasive, Wang added.
In addition, people may be hesitant to keep going for nasal swab tests if they previously had a bad experience, Wang added.
(By Chang Ming-hsuan and William Yen)