Document is current

Article History

Received: 23 July 2021

Accepted: 15 December 2021

First Online: 10 January 2022

Competing interests

: F.B. and L.G. are the inventors of the device used in the saliva collection kit. This device was patented (EP20186086.3) and produced by Diagenode (Seraing, Belgium) under a commercial agreement with the University of Liège. This does not alter the adherence to all journal policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the Author Guide. All other authors do not have competing interests.

: The study was commissioned by the Government of Wallonia within the framework of a public contract initiated by AViQ, as well as the University of Liège. The study was approved by the Ethical Committee of the University of Liège (reference number: 2021-101). The authorisation to publish was obtained after assessment by AViQ. This autonomous public interest organisation (OIP) manages the competencies of health, welfare, support for the elderly, disability, and family allowances ().

: An information document on the use of data - validated by the Data Protection Officer of the University of Liege - was made available to each participant through a notice available online (see version 0.1 of 31/10/2020 available at the following URL: ). This document indicates that: a) this study is based on the use of strictly anonymous data, which is in accordance with the expectations of the current regulations on privacy (General Data Protection Regulation), b) the data from the results of the PCR tests and its confirmation by sequencing are used to, in the words of the information document, “Conduct anonymous epidemiological research”. The scientific protocol and the various data processing related to it (autonomous collection of a saliva sample by the participant, PCR analysis and its confirmation by sequencing, linkage of the PCR result to a set of anonymous variables including the vaccination status of the participant at the time of the test) were presented to an ethical committee, which validated the terms. Since all these data were strictly anonymous, informed consent was not required. Nevertheless, the encoding, by the participant, of the saliva sample number (in order to retrieve the result of his/her PCR test) and her/his vaccination status signalled the participant’s acknowledgement of the conditions described in the information document.