From the Editor's Desk

'Pool testing' for COVID-19 may help increase testing capacities across the globe

Now, a team of researchers at the German Red Cross Blood Donor Service and the Institute for Medical Virology at the University Hospital Frankfurt at Goethe University have developed a pool testing procedure that will make it possible to rapidly increase worldwide testing capacities for SARS-CoV-2. Mass testing in broader population groups will help save time, provide more extensive isolation, speed contact tracing, and ultimately speed the containment of the outbreak.

Pool testing involves detecting the virus in samples that are combined for faster results and, at the same time, maximizing the resources. For instance, swab samples from mucous membranes of the nose or throat are combined in a buffer solution. The samples are tested using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) procedure and the direct genome detection of SARS-CoV-2.

The new procedure can help reduce the demand for test kits, especially that more countries are grappling with the vast spread of the viral infection. Pool testing can also help save supplies and time while increasing testing capacity. Due to the uncontrolled outbreak of the disease, reagents to process are limited. Pooling the samples together so they could save on the reagents used to run the test can significantly help in detecting the novel coronavirus.

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