Introduction

In May 2020, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) declared the region an epicenter of the disease (Pan American Organization, 2020) and in November 2020, cumulative COVID-19 cases in Latin America accounted for around 24% of all cases and 33% of all deaths globally. (World Health Organization, n.d.)
Although PAHO (Pan American Health Organization, 2020) and other organizations (World Health Organization, 2020a)(2019-nCoV Working Group. Communicable Diseases Network Australia., 2020) have released laboratory guidance for diagnosing COVID-19 cases, few have considered the availability of tests when making these recommendations. Latin America is a region with great socio-economic contrasts (World Bank Development Indicators DataBank, n.d.), as well as unequal health resources and, like in developed countries (Pablos-Méndez et al., 2020), the availability of COVID-19 tests and trained personnel are not exempt from supply chain or personnel pressures.
A panel of Latin American experts gathered to discuss the best use of diagnostic methods in the region and propose a simplified algorithm.