On the collection side for COVID-19 testing, there has been severe shortages of three critical components:
- 1. Nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal swabs for collecting the patient sample
- 2. Sterile stand-up tubes with screw caps for storing the swab post collection
- 3. Viral Transport Media (VTM) – to protect the sample until testing can be done
Unlike PPE articles like N95 masks, the main challenge has been ramping up production to meet the demand and not concerns with fraudulent and faulty products on the market.
There are specific requirements for swabs and tubes (or vials) used for COVID-19 testing which further limit the supply.
Transport tubes or transport vials must be sterile, both the tubes and the screwcaps.
The transport tube height must match the break points on the collection swab to protect the technician from having to reach into the tube to retrieve the swab for processing.
Transport tubes being purchased by test kit makers who employ a robotic liquid handler to automate the filling of tubes with viral transport media must consider whether the tube dimensions can accommodate their robot.
Specimen collection swabs are not elongated q-tips. Like the transport tubes, they must be sterile and individually wrapped.
Collection swabs must be made from materials that do not contain substances like calcium alginate which can degrade the sample.
The absorbent collection “head” should be made to release as much of the sample when inserted in the viral transport media.
The FDA suggests a “flocked head” might be the best sort of material for a specimen collection swab.
Stellar Scientific and NEST Scientific have partnered to accommodate the needs of most COVID-19 collection and testing centers requiring swabs, specimen collection vials and viral transport media.
We offer you a choice of sterile flocked nasal swabs with a break point at 80mm or sterile flocked oral swabs with convenient break points at 32 and 80mm.
Our flocked sample swabs quickly absorb and fully release the entire sample as can be seen in this short video.
If you are producing testing kits for in-house use or for re-sale, there are ready-made kit solutions that come complete with either a 5mL or 10mL sterile transport tube, VTM and individually wrapped swabs together.
The 5mL sterile vial is pre-filled with 2.5mL of viral transport media and the 10mL sterile vial is pre-filled with 3mL of viral transport media.
Kits using the 5mL transport vial are packed in smaller cases of fifty units while the 10mL vials come packaged in cases of 100.
Each case contains a matching number sterile, individually wrapped collection swabs.
Whether your COVID-19 testing site is performing RT-PCR tests or rapid antibody screening, Stellar Scientific can help shrink your bottlenecks to expand your testing footprint.