Table 1

Characteristics of the studies included in qualitative analysis

	Total studies	Total pop.	Structural gene primers		Structural and non-structural gene primers		Non-structural gene primers		Not reported
	Total studies	Total pop.	N studies	N pop.	N studies	N pop.	N studies	N pop.	N studies	N pop.
Total	85	21 530	22	4265	31	5484	3	123	29	11 658
Location
Asia (excluding China)	6	378	2	53	4	325
China	28	12 187	8	1802	17	3047	3	123	24	7215
Europe	12	5757	4	528	8	993			4	4236
North America	10	3001	8	1882	2	1119
Global		207							1	207
Primers
N—single	11	2016	11	2016
E—single	4	759	4	759
S—single	1	412	1	412
N, E	2	226	2	226
S, N	4	852	4	852
ORF1Ab, single	2	59					2	59
RdRp, single	1	64					1	64
E+ORF1Ab	2	1119			2	1119
E+RdRp	2	259			2	259
M, E	1	48			1	48
N+ORF1Ab	14	2703			14	2703
N+E+RdRp	4	333			4	333
S, N, E, RdRp, ORF1ab	1	13			1	13
N, E, ORF1ab	1	33			1	33
N, RNAse P	1	190			1	190
S, N, RdRp, ORF1ab, E, M	1	52			1	52
N, S, RdRp	1	273			1	273
N, E, S, RdRp	2	349			2	349
S, ORF1Ab	1	112			1	112
Sample source
Upper respiratory	23	6748	3	575	9	2633	1	64	10	3476
Upper and lower respiratory	1	52			1	52
Upper respiratory+other*	9	751	3	368	2	44	1	38	3	301
Lower respiratory+other*	1	273			1	273
Upper respiratory+serum	20	6407	7	1473	9	1432			4	3502
Upper respiratory+serum+other*	4	941	2	840	1	80	1	21
Upper and lower respiratory+other*	4	678	1	280	3	398
Upper and lower respiratory+serum+other*	2	518			1	132			1	386
Serum	18	2376	6	729	4	440			8	1207
Other*	1	199							1	199
Not reported	2	2587							2	2587

*Other=bronchioalveolar lavage, feces, urine, neonatal, amniotic fluid and breast milk.
E, envelope; N, nucleocapsid; N pop, patient population; ORF1ab, open reading frame1ab; RdRp, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase; S, spike.