Cost Effectiveness of Sample Pooling to Test for SARS-CoV-2.

Christopher Richard Bilder,Jodi Louise Garrett,Peter Charles Iwen,Baha Abdalhamid

doi:10.3855/jidc.13935

Abstract

Highlights

Dear Editor, Large-scale surveillance for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the pathogen for coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is an important strategy for preventing the second wave of the disease [1]
In order to reveal the importance of group testing for COVID-19, the FDA issued a statement on facilitating diagnostic test availability for asymptomatic testing and pool testing on June 16, 2020 [4]
The cost of pool testing to include repeat testing of individual specimens from positive pools was $45,787 compared to $80,921 for individual tests resulting in a cost savings of $35,134 (43.4%) (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Dear Editor, Large-scale surveillance for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the pathogen for coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is an important strategy for preventing the second wave of the disease [1]. Group testing of pooled specimens to detect for SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to be an effective strategy to conserve resources and to substantially increase testing capacity [2,3]. This is the first study to determine the cost effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 sample pooling.

Results

Conclusion