Abstract

Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been designated by the World Health Organization as a life-threatening global pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). The existing diagnostic practices are mainly based on real-time fluorescent PCR (RT-PCR), which is considered the clinical standard for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid detection. The ongoing efforts are focused on to develop new rapid diagnostics including point-of-care diagnostics and surveillance technologies to detect SARS-CoV-2 early in order to control the disease and mitigate it in a timely fashion. Here, we present an overview of the current state-ofthe-art of diagnostics of SARS-CoV-2 and the limitations of the existing technologies. We describe the emerging new promising diagnostic technologies that overcome the limitations by offering rapid, point-of-care diagnostic abilities for patients. Finally, we discuss innovative concepts and future directions in developing capabilities on smart surveillance technologies for mitigating the current challenges and also to prevent future global pandemic such as COVID19.