Nasal Swab Sampling for SARS-CoV-2: a Convenient Alternative in Times of Nasopharyngeal Swab Shortage

摘要

Nasopharyngeal swab is the reference sampling method to detect severe acuterespiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), as recommended by the WorldHealth Organization (WHO) (1). However, nasal specimens may have a slightly lowersensitivity than nasopharyngeal specimens (2, 3). We herein validated an alternativeprocedure to collect nasal secretions with a swab routinely used in medical bacteriol-ogy for which there is no risk of supply disruption in order to perform the moleculardiagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection.