Transfer learning for detecting COVID-19 on x-ray using deep residual network

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has been a disaster for humanity, especially in the health sector. Covid-19 is a serious disease, a large number of people lose their lives every day. This disease not only affects one country, but the whole world suffers from this viral disease. In the fight against COVID-19 immediate and accurate screening of infected patients is essential, one of the most widely used screening approaches is chest X-Ray (CXR) which is rated faster and cheaper. This study aims to detect patients suffering from COVID-19 through chest X-Ray using a transfer learning approach, the method used is with several deep residual network architectures such as ResNet50, RexNet100, SSL ResNet50, semi-weakly supervised learning (SWSL) ResNet50, Wide ResNet50, SK ResNet34, ECA ResNet50d, Inception ResNet V2, CSP ResNet50, and ResNest50d. Then the results will be compared with previous studies. The study was conducted ten times using different pre-training and got the best results on the SWSL ResNet50 architecture with an accuracy value of 99.28%, this value increased 6.98% from previous studies, 99.51% F1-Score, 99.41% Precision, 99.61% Sensitivity, and 98.33% Specificity, that means this study obtained better results than previous studies.