The recent pneumonia outbreak caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is posing a great threat to global public health. Therefore, rapid and accurate identification of pathogenic viruses plays a vital role in selecting appropriate treatments, saving people’s lives and preventing epidemics. It is important to establish a quick standard diagnostic test for the detection of the infectious disease (COVID-19) to prevent subsequent secondary spread. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is regarded as a gold standard test for the molecular diagnosis of viral and bacterial infections with high sensitivity and specificity. Isothermal nucleic acid amplification is considered to be a highly promising candidate method due to its fundamental advantage in quick procedure time at constant temperature without thermocycler operation. A variety of improved or new approaches also have been developed. This review summarizes the currently available detection methods for coronavirus nucleic acid. It is anticipated that this will assist researchers and clinicians in developing better techniques for timely and effective detection of coronavirus infection.

最近由新型冠状病毒（SARS-CoV-2）引起的肺炎暴发对全球公共卫生构成了巨大威胁。因此，快速准确地识别病原病毒在选择适当的治疗方法，挽救生命和预防流行病方面起着至关重要的作用。建立快速的标准诊断测试以检测传染病（COVID-19），以防止随后的继发性传播很重要。聚合酶链反应（PCR）被视为具有高灵敏度和特异性的分子诊断病毒和细菌感染的金标准测试。等温核酸扩增被认为是一种很有前途的候选方法，因为它的基本优点是在恒温条件下无需热循环仪即可快速进行操作。还已经开发了各种改进的或新的方法。这篇综述总结了目前可用于冠状病毒核酸的检测方法。预计这将有助于研究人员和临床医生开发更好的技术，以及时有效地检测冠状病毒感染。