Comprehending COVID-19 diagnostic tests and greenness assessment of its reported detection methods

In 2020, World Health Organization declared a pandemic due to acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). COVID-19 is an extremely infective disease that has become a global health risk. In response to this crisis, various methods have been elaborated for the diagnosis of COVID-19. Recently, the global trend has been toward greener analytical procedures for the protection of the environment and humans. Therefore, some green metrics have been designed for the assessment of the environmental impact of analytical methods. The Analytical GREEnness metric (AGREE) software has been applied herein to appraise the greenness character of the analytical techniques used for diagnosis of COVID-19. Furthermore, special AGREE software for sample prepa-ration (AGREEprep) has been applied to assess the sample treatment procedures, especially those preceding LC-MS. The total scores were compared, and the strength/weakness points were highlighted for each diagnostic technique. This study revealed that the best eco-performance is achieved by immunoassay techniques.

Automated summary

The environmental impact of diagnostic techniques for COVID-19 has been studied using the AGREE software. The study found that immunoassay techniques have the best eco-performance.