Nosocomial infection surveillance: Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network Statement on Point-of-Care Serology Testing in COVID-19

摘要

Point-of-care (POC) serology testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, detect the human antibody response to infection rather than the virus itself. Most POC serology tests are qualitative immunochromatographic (lateral-flow) based assays that detect immunoglobulins M and/or G in blood from a finger prick and can provide results in less than 30 minutes. While there is widespread interest in adopting POC serology tests for SARS-CoV-2, there are currently significant limitations to this testing modality, including the lack of understanding of the immunological response in COVID-19, limited clinical validation data and variability in performance among different POC tests.