The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry plans to allow the use of PCR tests using saliva to check whether travelers at airports are infected with the coronavirus, even if they are asymptomatic.
The ministry will allow the saliva PCR tests to be used only for quarantine purposes at airports.
The saliva PCR test can reduce the risk of the virus spreading compared to the conventional testing method of using nasal mucosa deep in the nose, and is expected to be implemented more quickly.
Currently, the use of saliva PCR tests is approved for those showing symptoms on the condition that the test is conducted within nine days of a person developing them. For those who are asymptomatic, medical staff needs to take nasal mucosa samples to conduct PCR tests. However, the nasal mucosa method increases the risk of the medical staff becoming infected, and the testing procedure takes a longer time.
A research panel of the ministry has conducted PCR tests on asymptomatic travelers at airports and other locations using both nasal mucosa samples and saliva samples. The outcomes between the two samples were almost the same, and as a result, the ministry judged that there would not be an issue using saliva PCR tests at airports for quarantining purposes.
Even if the test comes out as negative, the ministry is considering a measure to, for example, ask visitors to stay in specific locations for 14 days following their arrival.
At Narita Airport, there has been an increasing number of travelers who have returned from China and the PCR tests are taking a long time.
The government aims to further relax restrictions for travelers entering Japan for business purposes. To deal with the expected increase of people entering the country, figuring out how to conduct PCR tests more quickly is an urgent task.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
