evidence: The analytical sensitivity of the new molecular tests was reported to be high from the outset, even though a number of studies had to use target material from cultures of Vero cells or synthetic viral DNA fragments owing to the regulatory inability to access samples from the early infected populations in China45. This validation was repeated with clinically available samples from infected patients in Europe and other geographical regions, including North America and South America. This implies that for none of the currently used COVID-19 tests is the absolute sensitivity (RNA genomes per millilitre) known because there simply is not a clear gold standard for testing available for a pathogen that has been known for about half a year. It has to be emphasized that even ‘poor but cheap’ tests may be of diagnostic significance if the shortcomings of the tests are well considered66. It is relevant to note that it is difficult to obtain precise test quality data on locally used tests in China.