Use of strips of rapid diagnostic tests as a source of ribonucleic acid for genomic surveillance of viruses: an example of SARS-CoV-2.

Background: This study aimed to demonstrate that the genomic material of SARS-CoV-2 can be isolated from strips of COVID-19 rapid diagnostic test cassettes.

Method: It was a prospective cross-sectional study involving patients admitted to treatment centers and sampling sites in the city of Conakry, Guinea. A total of 121 patients were double sampled, and 9 more patients were tested only for RDT.