TABLE 1.

Different diagnostics methods for COVID-19.

Method	Characteristics/features	Limitations/disadvantages	References
Antigen-detection	Low complexity; rapid; easy to perform	Best used to identify acute or early infection; more prone to false negatives	Chen et al., 2016; Diao et al., 2020; Sheridan, 2020
Antibody-detection	Fast, robust and easy to perform; requiring only a small amount of sample	Unable to detect the presence of infection during the early stage of disease; cross-reactivity	Li Z. et al., 2020; Long Q.X. et al., 2020; Sheridan, 2020; Zhang et al., 2020; Zhao et al., 2020a
RT-qPCR	Specific, sensitive and simple quantitative assay, which greatly helps in the diagnosis of early infection	Costly and time consuming to perform; more prone to false negatives or low value	Chan et al., 2020a; Corman et al., 2020; Lan et al., 2020; Wang Y. et al., 2020
CT Scan	Available earlier; check severity of condition; check possible infection	Expensive; unable to distinguish from other viral pneumonias; hysteresis of abnormal CT imaging	Bernheim et al., 2020; Huang Y. et al., 2020; Li L. et al., 2020; Liu F. et al., 2020; Zhao et al., 2020c
CRISPR-based Detection	High sensitivity and specificity with efficiency and no requirement for elaborate instrumentation	Certain biological safety hazards brought by the retention and operation of patient samples	Gootenberg et al., 2018; Abbott et al., 2020; Broughton et al., 2020; Guo et al., 2020