![]() Most importantly, accurate and rapid diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection will help to identify, isolate, and treat the patients in order to minimize risk of public contamination and drastically reduce the mortality rates. Hence, there is an urgent need for deployment of rapid, highly specific and ultra-sensitive molecular diagnostic tests. Diagnostic testing for COVID-19 is critical for understanding epidemiology, contract-tracing, case management, and to repress the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2. The declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic has warranted the urgent need for technologies and tools to be deployed for confirming diagnosis of suspected cases. According to the WHO data on May 14, 2020, there have been 4,218,212 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 290,242 deaths reported globally and 74,281 confirmed cases reported from India ( 1). On March 12, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as global pandemic. This review summarizes various molecular diagnostics methods, technical guidelines, and advanced testing strategies adopted in India for laboratory diagnosis of COVID-19. Creation of genome repositories and open-source genetic databases for use by global researchers is clearly the way forward to manage COVID-19 outbreak and accelerate vaccine development. Large-scale sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 genome isolated from affected populations across the world needs to be carried to monitor mutations that might affect performance of molecular tests. Early detection of viral infection greatly enhances implementation of specific public health intervention, such as infection control, environmental decontamination, and the closure of specific high-risk zones. Development of rapid point of care tests with better sensitivity and specificity is the critical need of the hour as this will help accurate diagnosis and aid in containing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Laboratory diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 is extremely important in the disease and outbreak management. While there are many commercially available RT-PCR assay kits available in the market, selection of highly sensitive, specific, and validated assays is most crucial for the accurate diagnosis of COVID-19 infection. Currently, the Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT)-based RT-PCR technique is a gold standard test used for routine diagnosis of COVID-19 infection. ![]() ![]() 2Department of Medical Oncology, Hematology and BMT, HealthCare Global Enterprises Ltd.1Department of Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, HealthCare Global Enterprises Ltd.Rajesh Kumar 1 * Suhail Sayeed Mufti 1 Vinu Sarathy 1 Diganta Hazarika 1 Radheshyam Naik 1,2
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