Prescription: Issue No. 10 (October 2024)

The global response to this severe pandemic disease relies heavily on clinical laboratory testing, which plays a vital role in early diagnosis, treatment, and epidemiological surveillance. Molecular, serological, and biochemical diagnostic methods have been applied in the detection of COVID-19 cases. The RT-PCR-based molecular methods have become the gold standard technique used across the world for COVID-19 confirmatory of infection based on the qualitative detection of the nucleic acids of SARS-CoV-2. However, it might show a false negative result, it can only detect 71% of COVID19 infections depending on the time symptoms appear (viral load) or any sampling error may occur. To prevent possible cross-reaction with other prevalent coronaviruses, the assay should include at least two molecular targets.