| Technology | Method | Advantage | Disadvantage |
| Nucleic acid detection technology | RT-PCR | High sensitivity and specificity. Effective and straightforward method. Coinciding amplification and analysis in a closed system to minimize false-positive. results associated with amplification product contamination. Accurate diagnoses because it can target and identify specific pathogens. Reduced turnaround times | Jeopardizing the diagnostic accuracy by some pre-analytical and analytical variables. The false-negative rate of the technique is unneglectable. The availability of PCR reagent kits has not kept up with demand due to the shortage of kits and a false negative RT-PCR rate. The PCR infrastructure to handle high sample throughput is inadequate in community hospitals outside of metropolitan cities. It depends on the presence of SARS-CoV-2 observable in the collected sample. So, if an asymptomatic patient was infected with SARS-CoV-2 but has since recovered, PCR would not identify this prior infection. Primers in the ORF1a/b and N genes of COVID-19 can be affected by the variation of viral RNA sequences. Certain biological safety hazards brought by the retention and operation of patient samples. Nucleic acid detection operations are cumbersome and multistep. Time-consuming process for results. Expensive and depend upon technical expertise |
| High-throughput sequencing | The authoritative identification method for SARS-CoV-2 is high-throughput sequencing of the whole genome | Equipment dependency. High cost | |
| LAMP and RT-LAMP | Simple to operate. Easy to visualize for detection. Fewer background signals. No need for a thermocycler. More robust and more detection-sensitive compared to PCR. High specificity and sensitivity. Simple to perform | Low detection rate for SARS-CoV-2 and thus needing to be repeated 2 to 3 times in many cases. Patients have not been diagnosed promptly and thus have missed the chance of early isolation and early treatments are restricted by false-negative results and detection limitations. | |
| Isothermal amplification | Isothermal amplification multiplexed at the amplification and/or readout stage. Multiplexing increases the amount of information gained from a single test and improves clinical sensitivity and specificity. Barcoded-bead assays/systems are engineered for laboratory use | The challenge lies in the configuration of the system for reading. A dynamic barcode signal extracted from organic molecules involve a precise instrument configuration to differentiate the codes. | |
| CRISPR-based SHERLOCK | Much faster than detection by qRT-PCR. High sensitivity | Taking time to perform. It has been saddled with concerns regarding sensitivity (identifying people who have the disease) and specificity (identifying people who don’t have the disease) |