This paper was published by the World Health Organization.
"Background
We used known SARS- and SARS-related coronaviruses (bat viruses from our own studies as well as literature sources) to generate a non-redundant alignment (excerpts shown in Annex). We designed candidate diagnostic RT-PCR assays before release of the first sequence of 2019-nCoV. Upon sequence release, the following assays were selected based on their matching to 2019-nCoV as per inspection of the sequence alignment and initial evaluation...
Assay design
For oligonucleotide design and in-silico evaluation we downloaded all complete and partial (if >400 nucleotides) SARS-related virus sequences available at GenBank by January 1st, 2020. The list (n=729 entries) was manually checked and artificial sequences (lab-derived, synthetic etc.), as well as sequence duplicates removed, resulting in a final list of 375 Berlin, Jan 17th, 2020.sequences. These sequences were aligned and the alignment used for assay design. The alignment was later complemented by sequences released from the Wuhan cluster. All presently release sequences match the amplicons."
See http://enformtk.u-aizu.ac.jp/cormandrostenreview.com/index.html%3Fp=1.html for a review of the Corman-Drosten PCR test publication by a group of independent researchers. All components of the presented test design were cross-checked, the RT-qPCR protocol recommendations were assessed with regard to good laboratory practice and parameters were examined against relevant scientific literature covering the field.
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