Finland to introduce mouth-washing COVID-19 test

Starting next week, a commercial health service provider will offer Finnish customers "gargling tests" for COVID-19, reported Xinhua, quoting news agency USU on Thursday.

The report said that persons to be tested will gargle with a common salt liquid and spit it out for analysis. The current method of using a long stick to the nose was thought to be painful for many.

Piia Aarnisalo, the laboratory director at Terveystalo, a leading private healthcare service provider headquartered in Helsinki, told USU that the sample will then be tested with the usual PCR method in the way the nose tests have been done. "But with gargling, the sample comes from further down in the throat, where the viruses abound more than in the mouth."

The gargling COVID-19 test option was seen before in some European countries, which was considered by some researchers as a viable alternative to the nostril or throat swab due to its easy collection and relief on medical workers.