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The Research Institute's laboratory doctor Aigars Reinis said that the quick tests had been in development for six months. The current tests work by identifying RNA specific to the virus, while the new tests will work differently and be much faster.

"The new tests will look for viral surface antigen" to help find out whether the sample contains the virus, said Reinis.

He could not tell when the validation process would conclude, but said that the test precision would be very high, around 90%.

The new tests will also be more comfortable than the current nasal swabs. The entire process will take fifteen to thirty minutes.

According to the Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital Professor Valdis Pirags, the quick saliva tests could go into production in four months after clinical trials of the new tests are completed.