The oropharyngeal swab has a lower sensitivity (around 84% (95% confidence interval: 57-100%)) compared to the nasopharyngeal swab in PCR testing. For oropharyngeal swabbing, a rigid and slightly thicker swab is used to collect material from the back of the oropharynx, while there is no consensus in the literature on whether swabbing should also be performed from the tonsils.

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