Editorial and Executive Summary: IFCC Interim Guidelines on Clinical Laboratory testing during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Giuseppe Lippi, Andrea R. Horvath, Khosrow Adeli
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the novel coronavirus which causes coronavirus disease 19 . As of September 19, 2020, more than 30 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 900,000 deaths have been reported. Laboratory testing has played a crucial role in managing the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe Hundreds of medical tests have been rapidly produced in-house, or released to the market via emergency use authorization by various regulatory bodies, to assist governments in managing outbreaks during this pandemic. These medical assays include molecular tests for detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA along with serological tests for detecting antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. The rapid development of these tests, combined with the urgency to support clinical care, has resulted in much debate regarding their appropriate clinical applications as well as their respective analytical and clinical performance in populations of interest The interpretation of laboratory test results for both molecular and serological assays is complicated by their dynamic profile, varying significantly in the detection window and in response to severity of symptoms (Figure