Detection of SARS-CoV-2 using high-throughput PCR

Saakshi, Jalali Patel V. K.; Venkatesh, Prasad Ajit Sapre Santanu Dasgupta Bhaskar Bhadra

Efficient management of an epidemic requires identification and isolation of infected individuals from healthy population to curb community spread of the pathogen. Therefore, a faster and efficient diagnostic method for population screening is desirable to flatten the curve of daily raise of cases. This will also help medical professional to treat the epidemic efficiently. The COVID 19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus poses a huge challenge to human being and the countries with high-density population are facing unique challenges. For the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, Quantitative Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR) emerging as a gold standard for the identification of infection;however, infrastructure requirement for this assay is at a high-demand and therefore, resources are not abundant. We, therefore, propose a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)-based sensitive method for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The pipeline discussed in the paper will broaden the scope of control and surveillance of COVID 19 in a high-throughput manner without a sophisticated diagnostic infrastructure.