Lessons learned: drive-through COVID-19 clinic testing during an adaptive epidemic response and a point-of-care test assessment of a computer-read rapid lateral flow immunoassay with fluorescence-based detection.

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated a need for robust SARS-CoV-2 test evaluation infrastructure to underpin biosecurity and protect the population during a pandemic health emergency. The first generation of rapid antigen tests was less accurate than molecular methods due to their inherent sensitivity and specificity shortfalls, compounded by the consequences of self-testing. This created a need for more accurate point-of-care SARS-CoV-2 detection methods.