Real-world Evaluation of a Sample Pooling Strategy for Large-Scale Rapid COVID-19 Testing.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 has become a public health crisis of unprecedented proportions. The fast spread of emerging variants increases the needs of rapid diagnostic and screening testing. Sample pooling efficiently expands the testing capacity under limited resources.

Objectives

We evaluated the performance of sample pooling on the Point-of-Care (POC) Liat® and cobas® 6800 systems and provided real-world experiences for implementing these systems in large-scale screenings.

Methods

Positive nasopharyngeal (NP) specimens with Ct values < 25, 25∼30 or > 30 were tested individually and in pools to optimize the POC Liat® and cobas® 6800 systems, which were then implemented in community screenings.

Results

The 5-sample pooling strategy did not a

SUBMITTER: Lee HR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8923011 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature