Journal Article

SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid testing is China's key pillar of COVID-19 containment

Xu, Yingchun, Li, Yan, Li, Jinming, Ying, Binwu, Chen, Yu, Han, Xiaoxu, Shang, Hong

2022

Overview

By Jan 31, 2020, the National Medical Products Administration urgently approved six nucleic acid detection kits, and post-market evaluation with a multicentre clinical trial was completed by professional institutions by the end of February, 2020. NAAT laboratories have been in development across China for decades; thousands of NAAT laboratories for detecting infectious agents such as hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and HIV are established in large hospitals, blood centres, and in the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. To improve the efficiency of mass screening, China has adopted the sample pooling strategy in three patterns (five, ten, or 20 pooled samples) on the basis of different epidemic periods.4,5 With the optimisation of sample pooling methodology and development of an electronic information system, this sample pooling strategy ensures both high sensitivity and efficiency.

• Publisher: Elsevier Ltd,Elsevier BV,Elsevier Limited
• Subject: Acids / China / China - epidemiology / Coronaviruses / Correspondence / COVID-19 / Disease control / Epidemics / Fever / Hepatitis / Hepatitis B / Hepatitis C / HIV / Hospitals / Human immunodeficiency virus / Humans / Infectious diseases / Laboratories / Medical equipment / Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques / Nucleic Acids / Optimization / Pandemics / Population / Public health / SARS-CoV-2 / Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 / Testing laboratories / Viral diseases