U of I's COVID-19 saliva test finally receives FDA approval
A University of Illinois saliva-based COVID-19 test that has been used on students and staff members since last summer finally received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
University officials and state leaders had been hopeful the rapid-result test could have been deployed statewide sooner, but a bureaucratic issue between the university system and the FDA held up the authorization process.
“The FDA process was long because they did a thorough job and asked us to do a lot of trials to make sure the test was a good one,” said Ron Watkins, managing director for Shield Illinois, the group charged with making the test available to others throughout the state. “And we learned it was even better than we thought it was.”
Watkins said he is hopeful other campuses throughout the state will have access to the test in the coming days. Even though the test took longer to gain approval, Watkins said that approval process didn't stop his team from getting the infrastructure in place throughout the state to handle the new tests.
He added that school districts throughout the state are also in line to use the test.
Besides the advantage of getting back tests results in half a day, these tests don't require a medical professional to administer them.
“You're literally just drooling into a cup,” Watkins said. “There's no health care professionals necessary to collect it, so it's easier for these organizations to use it.”
Because COVID-19 is spread most commonly through saliva droplets, testing saliva is considered more accurate, researchers at the university said in August when the tests were introduced.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker applauded the FDA's decision Monday.
“The University of Illinois has been a national leader in innovation for decades, and the campus' groundbreaking work to develop rapid, saliva-based COVID-19 testing is but the latest example of that tradition,” he said. “My administration has been proud to work hand-in-hand with U of I since the earliest days of this development, which has had an enormously positive effect on keeping COVID-19 at bay in the U of I system, and we're wasting no time in deploying this technology throughout the state.”
The availability of the new test comes as federal and state health officials are warning Americans to remain vigilant about the potential for infections.
“I remain deeply concerned about a potential shift in the trajectory of the pandemic,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday. “The most recent seven-day average of cases — approximately 67,200 — represents an increase of a little over 2% compared to the prior seven days.”
In Illinois, the seven-day average dipped to 1,726 new cases a day a week ago, then rose to 1,824 by Friday. It now stands at an average of 1,741 new cases diagnosed each day over the past week.
The state is also averaging more than 1,200 people being treated in hospitals throughout the state each day over the past week.