Comparison of diagnostic performance of five molecular assays for detection of SARS-CoV-2.

We compared the performance of the Abbott Real Time SARS-CoV-2 assay (Abbott assay), Aptima™ SARS-CoV-2 assay (Aptima assay), BGI Real-Time SARS-CoV-2 assay (BGI assay), Lyra® SARS-CoV-2 assay (Lyra assay), and DiaSorin Simplexa™ COVID assay for SARS-CoV-2 detection. Residual nasopharyngeal samples (n = 201) submitted for routine SARS-CoV-2 testing by Simplexa assay during June-July 2020 and January 2021 were salvaged. Aliquots were tested on other assays and compared against the CDC 2019-nCoV Real-Time RT-PCR assay.