ABSTRACT
In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Since then, the number of cases worldwide has increased rapidly, causing panic and leading to an increase in patients visiting emergency departments. A key factor in slowing transmission of COVID-19 is social distancing through decreasing person-toperson contact. Using a telemedicine technique to score and triage patients according to their symptoms might help to limit unnecessary emergency department visits and decrease the risk of exposure to COVID-19. In Saudi Arabia, the increase in the number of cases has stressed many emergency departments. At King Abdulaziz University Hospital, a tele-triage program was used to screen patients, with the goal of limiting unnecessary visits to the emergency department for screening or information. Based on self-reported data, a 27% drop in the number of people planning to visit the emergency department for COVID-19 related complaints was registered in the initial month. Research also suggests that involving tele-medicine in routine practice could ease its implementation during a pandemic or disaster. The article describes the program's rationale, the protocol developed, and the results of statistical analysis of the first month's data, as well as some of the challenges faced in implementing such a program and in drawing conclusions.
ABSTRACT
The emergence of the novel coronavirus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the late months of 2019 had the officials to declare a public health emergency leading to a global response. Public measurements rely on an accurate diagnosis of individuals infected with the virus by using real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The aim of our study is to relate the fundamental clinical and analytical performance of SARS-CoV-2 (RT-PCR) commercial kits. A total of 94 clinical samples were selected. Generally, 400 µl of each respiratory specimen was subjected to extraction using ExiPrep 96 Viral RNA Kit. All kits master mix preparation, cycling protocol, thermocycler, and results interpretation were carried out according to the manufacturer's instructions of use and recommendations. The performance of the kits was comparable except for the LYRA kit as it was less sensitive (F = 67, p < .001). Overall, four kits scored a sensitivity of 100% including: BGI, IQ Real, Sansure, and RADI. For specificity, all the tested kits scored above 95%. The performance of these commercial kits by gene target showed no significant change in CT values which indicates that kits disparities are mainly linked to the oligonucleotide of the gene target. We believe that most of the commercially available RT-PCR kits included in this study can be used for routine diagnosis of patients with SARS-CoV-2. We recommend including kits with multiple targets in order to monitor the virus changes over time.