Table 4.

Summary of advantages and disadvantages of Immunoassays

S. No.	Advantages	Disadvantages
1.	Ease of perform and interpret: Immunoassays are available in a kit format and do not require training of the operators. Widely accepted and practiced and approved for use in a broad range of applications. Antibodies are more stable as compared to viral RNA, therefore the samples are less prone to deterioration during collection, processing, transportation, storage, and testing as compared to rRT-PCR samples. Moreover, due to the homogeneity of the blood samples, there are less variations observed in contrast to nasopharyngeal specimens [50]	The results can get affected by autoantibodies, human anti reagent antibodies. Cross reactivity between antibodies in multiplexed immunoassays should be prevented to eliminate false reading. Due to the less number of differences among the antigens many antibodies can’t be distinguished easily. These differences in the analytes often have serious diagnostic implications.
2.	It is cost effective as compared to molecular method. Immuno-diagnosis is appropriate for large scale community screening and assessment of herd immunity.	It can’t be used for early diagnosis, as antibodies appear late during infection.
3.	Immunoassays have a high level of sensitivity and can also detect asymptomatic individuals.	Some Rapid tests kits have poor quality and can give false positive and false negative results.
4.	The antibody-antigen based immunoassays are rapid and can give results in 15–20 minutes.	It can give a false sense of immunity because currently there is no evidence to suggest that people who have recovered from COVID-19 are immune to catching it again.