Pooling Coronavirus Tests Can Spare Scare Supplies, But There's A Catch

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Instead of running a coronavirus test on every specimen, a lab can combines multiple samples. If the batch is negative, then everyone is in the clear. A positive leads to a second round of testing.

After convincing himself the technique would work, he got permission from the governor to use this method. He pooled five tests at a time, and found that he could run more than twice as many tests with the same materials.that this technique can vastly increase testing, though unless the virus is rarely present, the savings won't be that substantial.

There are substantial logistics involved in running these tests. Labs have to keep track of the original specimens and keep track of test results, Iwen says. But large and organized labs can handle these additional steps. There's another trade-off as well. When labs combine samples, they increase the risk of getting negative results from people who are actually infected., a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco."So, there's a decrease in the amount of stuff you want to detect in the specimen. And that results in a corresponding decrease in the sensitivity of detection for the test.

 

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