Scaled testing for COVID-19 needs community involvement

With limited vaccine coverage and in the absence of specific therapeutics, options to curb COVID-19 pandemic today are mostly infection prevention measures diagnostic tests identify infected individuals rapidly, followed by isolation contact tracing. The past months have seen significant worldwide scale-up testing through quantitative PCR (qPCR) detecting nucleic acid SARS-CoV-2. However, with current resurgence cases Europe elsewhere, qPCR demand far exceeds capacity. Moreover, is expensive, requires sophisticated laboratories, well-trained staff, extensive logistics. Capacity deficits aggravated LMICs (Lower Middle-Income Countries) rampant shortages kits, qualified compromising clinical utility. Africa CDC reports 23 countries proxy <5000 tests/million population [1]. Alternative novel molecular diagnostics such as LAMP, DNAnudge LAMPore remain widely unscalable. even has its limitations non-infectious traces viral RNA [2] false negativity issues [3]. We conclude that for unfit reaching scale at community level.