TOKYO: Japan's health ministry has decided to allow dentists to collect samples from people suspected of being infected with the new coronavirus in an effort to strengthen the country's system to conduct polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests for detecting infection, according to informed sources.

The plan was approved at an expert panel meeting held on Sunday.

The ministry will notify local governments of the measure after fleshing out operational details, the sources said.

Currently, samples for PCR tests are collected from patients' nostrils and throats by doctors and other medical staff at outpatient facilities for returnees from abroad and those who had close contact with virus carriers, and also at special testing facilities set up by regional medical associations.

The number of tests conducted in Japan per day has been increasing, now reaching up to nearly 9,000.

Dentists have been deemed ineligible to collect patients' samples, as the act is regarded as a medical practice under the medical practitioners law.

But the expert panel judged it imperative to allow dentists, who have expertise in the field of oral cavity, to collect samples in order to cope with an anticipated surge in demand for testing amid the spreading COVID-19 outbreak.

The ministry also hopes that the measure will help reduce doctors' workload.

The expert panel decided to allow dentists who have taken relevant training to collect samples from patients at the special outpatient facilities for a certain period.

The measure will be effective as long as the testing demand keeps growing, according to the sources.

JIJI Press