COVID-19 pandemic will continue to pose a major public health threat until vaccination-mediated herd immunity is achieved. Most projections predict vaccine will reach a large subset of the population late in 2021 or early 2022. In the meantime, countries are exploring options to remove strict lockdown measures and allow for society and the economy to return to normal function. One possibility is to expand on existing COVID-19 testing strategies by including large-scale rapid point of care diagnostic tests (POCTs). Currently, there is significant variability in performance and features of available POCTs, making selection and procurement of appropriate test for specific use case difficult. In this review, we have used the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recently published Target Product Profiles (TPPs) for specific use cases of COVID-19 diagnostic tests to screen for top-performing POCTs on the market. Several top-performing POCTs, based on clinical sensitivity/specificity, the limit of detection, and time to results, that meet WHO TPP criteria for direct detection of SARS-CoV-2 (acute infection), or indirect diagnosis of past infection (host antibodies) are highlighted here.

In only a few months after initial discovery in Wuhan, China, SARS-CoV-2 and the associated COVID-19 disease has become a global pandemic causing significant mortality and morbidity. In the absence of vaccines and effective therapeutics, reliable serological testing can be a key element of public health policy to control further spread of the disease and gradually ease quarantine measures. However, prior to launch of large-scale seroprevalence studies to assess herd immunity, it is critical to understand the limits and potential of current SARS-CoV-2 serological tests on the market. In this study, we provide an overview of serological testing and conduct a systematic review of independent evaluations of SARS-CoV-2 serological tests performance. Our findings show significant variability in the accuracy of marketed tests and highlight several lab-based and point-of-care rapid diagnostic tests with high performance level in detecting SRAS-CoV-2 specific antibodies. The findings of this review highlight the need for ongoing independent evaluations of commercialized COVID-19 diagnostic tests.