Point-of-Care Testing of COVID-19: Current Status, Clinical Impact, and Future Therapeutic Perspectives

Abstract

AbstractThe effective management of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic depends on the bedrock of rapid and accurate testing to enable promptness in quarantining, contact tracing, epidemiologic characterization, evaluating vaccine response, and strategic decision-making. In this context, point-of-care (POC) tests are of utmost importance as they facilitate rapid and decentralized testing without much instrumentation and technical expertise. The review describes the current status of POC COVID-19 testing in three broad categories: molecular, antigen, and antibody. The advantages, limitations, and adaption of each of the three types of POC tests are discussed while highlighting their clinical impact in real-world settings. The role of POC testing for COVID-19 screening, diagnosis, and surveillance has been highlighted, focusing on recent advances in the field. The difference between POC and at-home tests is discussed while elaborating on the necessity for the latter. A spotlight on the impact of variants on the performance of COVID-19 tests is provided. The clinical impact of POC testing in hospitals with regard to improving therapeutic options, patient flow, enhancing the infection control measures, and early recruitment of patients into clinical trials is discussed. Finally, the future perspectives that will aid the research community in the development of POC tests for COVID-19 or any infectious disease, in general, are presented. Overall, we believe this review can benefit the research community as it (i) presents a comprehensive understanding of current COVID-19 POC testing methods (ii) highlights features required to transform the current tests developed during the past year as POC diagnostics, and (iii) provides insights to address the unmet challenges in the field.KeywordsCOVID-19SARS-CoV-2Point-of-careTestingDiagnosisScreeningSurveillanceVariantsAt-home