The cotton swabs used for nucleic acid are not ordinary cotton swabs. The cotton swabs used for sampling are called "sampling swabs".
The cotton swabs used in daily life are made of absorbent cotton, and the sampling swab looks similar to an ordinary cotton swab, but the top is actually a flocked swab. The reason why a flocked swab is used is because it is more suitable for Sampling and testing. The flocked swab is made of nylon fiber flocking technology, and the front end is coated with nylon short fibers fixed vertically, so that there are no absorption holes in the entire collection area of ??the swab.
In this way, the collected samples will not be dispersed and retained in the fiber, which is conducive to faster and more efficient elution. Relevant data shows that flocked swabs can elute more than 85% of the collected samples; traditional cotton swabs, especially cotton swabs made of absorbent cotton, cannot completely collect and elute samples.
Nucleic acid test precautions
1. Avoid eating 2 hours before the nucleic acid test to avoid vomiting. Do not smoke, drink, chew gum, etc. 30 minutes before sampling. Please bring your ID card and follow the community notification to arrive at the testing site. The weather is cold and the queue for testing may be longer. Do a good job in personal protection against cold and warmth. Keep a distance of more than 1 meter between people, line up in an orderly manner, avoid crowding, and avoid talking.
2. Testers should wear masks correctly and remove them before testing; wear them immediately after testing and prepare spare masks so that they can be replaced at any time after contamination. When collecting an oropharyngeal swab, the tester tilts their head back, opens their mouth and makes an "ah" sound, fully exposing their throat.