Current and Perspective Diagnostic Techniques for COVID-19

Since late December 2019, the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19; previously known as 2019-nCoV) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been surging rapidly around the world. With more than 1,700,000 confirmed cases, the world faces an unprecedented economic, social, and health impact. The early, rapid, sensitive, and accurate diagnosis of viral infection provides rapid responses for public health surveillance, prevention, and control of contagious diffusion. More than 30% of the confirmed cases are asymptomatic, and the high false-negative rate (FNR) of a single assay requires the development of novel diagnostic techniques, combinative approaches, sampling from different locations, and consecutive detection. The recurrence of discharged patients indicates the need for long-term monitoring and tracking. Diagnostic and therapeutic methods are evolving with a deeper understanding of virus pathology and the potential for relapse. In this Review, a comprehensive summary and comparison of different SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic methods are provided for researchers and clinicians to develop appropriate strategies for the timely and effective detection of SARS-CoV-2. The survey of current biosensors and diagnostic devices for viral nucleic acids, proteins, and particles and chest tomography will provide insight into the development of novel perspective techniques for the diagnosis of COVID-19.