Characteristics of the COVID-19 pandemic and role of laboratory medicine in containment: An insight from Saudi Arabia’s policies and guidelines on containment strategies

COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease has caused several general occurrence cases, in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries. The disease is characterized by a wide spectrum of clinical symptoms, including exhaustion, trouble breathing, cognitive impairment, and chest discomfort for several weeks to months following the infection. To contain the epidemic, every nation used multiple healthcare system strategies, including in the laboratory medicine. Saudi Arabia has developed many strategic policies and implemented scientific regulations to utilize laboratory medicine to control the pandemic. In this review, we have detailed the different aspects related to COVID-19 infections, the major challenges, and different strategies implemented by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to successfully contain the infections focused on laboratory expertise and new policy implementations in the specialty areas such as research and development, integration with public health strategies, implementation of advanced diagnostic technologies and operation of testing center.