Do you have any insight into the validity of the Nasopharyngeal covid19 PCR test...

projektfu · on April 9, 2020

For samples with coronavirus particles, sensitivity and specificity are around 100%. (1)

The issue is that many samples do not contain virus. As far as I know, that has not been quantified outside of China. (2)

dogma1138 · on April 10, 2020

Single swab tests may be inaccurate, nasal, throat and anal swabbing is usually recommended for good coverage.

The PCR test itself has near 100% sensitivity and specificity when done correctly.

Poor swabbing or contamination can result in false negatives or positives.

Manual PCR testing is known to be quite prone to human errors hence why the all in one cassette kits are quite popular.