COVID-19 has spread to countries all around the world. It is insidious and highly contagious, with high mortality in critically ill patients, and there are no specific drugs against it. The development of the pandemic poses a huge threat to global health. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, under the leadership of the Party Central Committee and governments at all levels, China quickly took a series of measures for the prevention and control of the pandemic, and achieved a phased victory in the fight against the pandemic. The rapid and accurate laboratory testing plays a crucial role in this process.

With the gradual advancement of the resumption of work and production across the country, the State Council issued a document requiring all tertiary general hospitals to be qualified to independently carry out COVID-19 testing. For this, the Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province quickly organized a total of 23 virus experts, laboratory experts, and clinicians in the fields like virology, clinical laboratory, clinical medicine, and preventive medicine within Guangdong Province in early March 2020, to summarize the current research status of COVID-19 laboratory testing technology at home and abroad. Combined with the first-line prevention and testing experience in Guangdong Province, the “Consensus of Experts on COVID-19 Laboratory Testing in Guangdong Province” is written.

Some experts have discussed and modified the details of the consensus for many times

The English version of the Consensus was officially included in the Journal of Thoracic Disease on July 2^nd, 2020 (full text: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32944351/ DOI: 10.21037/jtd-20-1928), which fully reflects the determination of Guangdong Province to actively respond to the call of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, to share laboratory diagnosis experience with medical staff and inspectors at home and abroad, and to provide international aid in the fight against COVID-19. The Chinese version of the Consensus was officially included in the International Journal of Respiration on September 29th, 2020, striving to contribute the Guangdong’s experience on laboratory testing and diagnosis to the resumption of work and production.