The primary COVID test used today is the swab test, either from the nose or throat of the potentially infected individual. The swab aims to capture the genetic material of the coronavirus from the individual’s nasopharyngeal secretions. Once the swab has been taken from the patient, it is placed into a reaction vial containing chemicals required to break the virus and expose the viral genome. Specific parts of the viral RNA will bond to a different chemical in the vial and replicate itself over the course of time. While that is happening, another reagent (chemical) with a marker will bind itself to the replicated genetic complex. The marker will indicate the presence of the COVID virus’s genome and therefore lead to a positive or negative test result. If no marker is present over the course of a specified amount of time, the individual will receive a negative test result. Markers in a positive sample can show up over the course of a few hours or a few days.