Table 1.

Types of COVID-19 laboratory tests in Korea

Type of test	Intended use	Caution
rRT-PCR	Confirmatory diagnosis in acute symptomatic patients or screening of asymptomatic individuals	Not suitable for quantitative interpretation. Infectivity cannot be determined on the basis of PCR results alone.
Pooled test using rRT-PCR	Screening of asymptomatic individuals	Sensitivity may vary with the transport medium, nucleic acid extraction method, and PCR reagent used, and the pool size.
Rapid molecular test	Rapid screening under emergency situations	Positive results are recommended to be confirmed with a validated rRT-PCR.
Antigen test	Diagnosis for symptomatic patients within seven days from symptom onset	The false-negative rate is high in pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic patients. The false-positive rate is high when prevalence is low.
Antibody test	Confirmation of past infection or multisystem inflammation syndrome or serosurveillance	Assays with high specificity should be used. Not recommended for evaluating the risk of infection.

Abbreviation: rRT-PCR, real-time reverse transcription PCR.