Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infections in times of material shortage

The pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 resulted in increasing demands for diagnostic tests, leading to a shortage of recommended testing materials and reagents. This study reports on the performance of self-sampled alternative swabbing material (ordinary Q-tips tested against flocked swab and rayon swab), of reagents for classical RNA extraction (phenol/guanidine-based protocol against a commercial kit), and of intercalating dye-based one-step quantitative reverse transcription real-time PCRs (RT-qPCR) compared against the gold standard hydrolysis probe-based assays for SARS-CoV-2 detection. The study found sampling with Q-tips, RNA extraction with classical protocol and intercalating dye-based RT-qPCR as a reliable and comparably sensitive strategy for detection of SARS-CoV-2 - particularly valuable in the current period with a resurgent and dramatic increase in SARS-CoV-2 infections and growing shortage of diagnostic materials as well for regions limited in resources. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Clinical Trial This is not a clinical trial ### Funding Statement No external funding was received. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Universitaetsklinikum Tuebingen/Germany (Ref. number 20/231/B01). All necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes On request the data can be shared.