This study was done to assess the performance of the TaqPath COVID-19 FluA, FluB Combo Kit. The clinical symptoms of COVID-19 and Flu A/B are similar and can be hard to differentiate. Simultaneously testing for symptomatic patients is recommended by the CDC. Many PCR tests can simultaneously test for COVID-19, Flu A, and Flu B, but since these tests are new, there are not a lot of data on their comparative performance.
This study looked at the performance of the TaqPath COVID-19 FluA, FluB Combo Kit, Roche cobas® SARS-CoV-2 & Influenza A/B Test, and the BioCode® Respiratory Pathogen Panel and SARS-CoV-2 Assay Kit. Samples that had been previously tested were used for the study. Overall, 60 samples were positive for Flu A, 46 were positive for Flu B, 67 were positive for COVID-19, and 61 samples were negative for COVID-19/Flu A/Flu B. All of these samples were tested using the three assays.
When the results were compared, the study found that the results correlated across all three assays. All positive samples were found to be positive on all three assays. All negative samples were found to be negative on all three assays.
This was an informal study NOT sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific.