We already have RT-PCR assays for COVID-19, which is pretty affordable in terms of reagents (whether that translates to affordability overall is a different sto

We already have RT-PCR assays for COVID-19, which is pretty affordable in terms of reagents (whether that translates to affordability overall is a different story). There are supposed to be six labs in the US performing screening for COVID-19 this week [1]. There is also the possibility of a faster point-of-care CRISPR-based diagnostic tool that should be very sensitive (for instance, [2]). However, this is a novel diagnostic method. It is not outside of the realm of possibility that we could see it deployed in a matter of months, but that would require significant (probably unprecedented) collaboration between the developers, the CDC, the FDA, and manufacturing partners. [1] https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/24/21147157/coronavirus-lab-surveillance-flu-cdc-virus-tracking-testing https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/24/21147157/coronavirus-lab-... [2] https://mammoth.bio/2020/02/15/white-paper-a-protocol-for-rapid-detection-of-sars-cov-2-using-crispr-sars-cov-2-detectr/ https://mammoth.bio/2020/02/15/white-paper-a-protocol-for-ra... Edit: this is such a new method that I’m not sure what to expect with regards to its performance. There might be a high false positive rate, for instance.