This book highlights the role of point-of-care (POC) testing in the effective management of the
coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with an in-depth focus on the recent developments
in the field existing gaps and future directions. POC tests are of utmost importance as they
facilitate rapid and decentralized testing without much instrumentation and technical
expertise. The book describes the current status of POC COVID-19 testing in three broad
categories: Molecular antigen and antibody. The advantages limitations and adaption of each
of the POC tests are reviewed while highlighting their clinical impact in real-world settings.
The role of POC testing for COVID-19 screening diagnosis and surveillance has been
emphasized. The subtle difference between POC and at-home tests is discussed while elaborating
on the necessity for the latter for enhancing clinical impacts. A spotlight on the influence of
variants on the performance of POC-COVID-19 tests is provided. The consideration of clinical
implications of POC testing in hospitals with regards to improving therapeutic options patient
flow enhancing the infection control measures and early recruitment of patients into clinical
trials is explained. Finally the future perspectives that will aid the research community in
the development of POC tests for COVID-19 or any infectious disease in general are presented.
Overall we believe this book can benefit the research community as it (i) presents a
comprehensive understanding of current COVID-19 POC testing methods (ii) highlights features
required to transform the current tests developed during the past year as POC diagnostics and
(iii) provides insights to address the unmet challenges in the field.
