ZURICH: Swiss drugmaker Roche plans to boost production of rapid COVID-19 tests to hundreds of millions monthly, including possible saliva tests, Chief Executive Severin Schwan said, acknowledging the fierceness of the pandemic's second wave took him by surprise.

"The market is totally sold out," Schwan said on Thursday on a call with journalists of the rapid antigen tests that governments are increasingly turning to as global COVID-19 cases skyrocket and swamp test centres that until now have relied on more-accurate but slower PCR tests.