Maintaining point of care testing capacity and pandemic preparedness in the post-COVID-19 era

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Testing at the point of care (we also refer to the ‘point of need’), with rapid, actionable results reported to the patient and provider within hours can impact the individual as well as public health. Faster testing is good for patients and public health outcomes during ‘peace time’ (outside of the pandemic setting).

Areas covered

Testing at the point of need was important during the COVID-19 pandemic to meet testing capacity demands, providing actionable results, and for providing testing within communities to increase access for all populations. Resources were acquired and built up dramatically during the pandemic as part of the response. With the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency and transition back to ‘peace time’ some testing sites have successfully shifted to using this capacity for testing for other critical needs, like sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing, and response to other seasonal diseases and for outbreak response.

Expert opinion

The increased testing capacity added to handle unprecedented testing volume during the COVID-19 pandemic can be repurposed for other critical infectious diseases during ‘peace time’ (post-COVID-19 pandemic). This maintains testing capacity for the next pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Point of care testing
• point of need testing
• SARS-CoV-2
• testing capacity
• COVID-19

Article highlights

• Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic most point of care testing for infectious diseases was limited to a few CLIA waived tests in the U.S.

• The COVID-19 pandemic put an unprecedented demand on testing and highlighted its critical role.

• Significant infrastructure was created to accommodate the need for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing and screening of symptomatic and asymptomatic persons.

• Since the expiration of the COVID-19 public health emergency and subsequent decreased demand for testing, some sites have successfully shifted to using this capacity for testing for other critical needs.

• By maintaining post-COVID-19 testing capacity and converting it other uses, rather than dismantling it, testing sites maintain their readiness for the next pandemic.

Declaration of interests

All authors receive salary from Cepheid and equity compensation from Danaher. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.