Cost-Effective Pool Tests For Coronavirus Proposed By Medical Body ICMR

Mass testing for coronavirus can be made low cost by "pool testing" - conducting tests of groups of five persons as a poll, the Indian Council of Medical Research - the country's nodal body for testing - said today. Mass testing has gained importance as the number of coronavirus positives in the country Is set to touch 10,000. Over the last few days, 700 to 900 patients have been testing positive every 24 hours. 

The ICMR today suggested pool testing - screening a pooled sample from five individuals. Individual patients are screened only if the pool tests positive. 

"As all individual samples in a negative pool are regarded as negative, it results in substantial cost savings when a large proportion of pools test negative," the ICMR said in its advisory.

The doctors said then process will be used in areas that have a low prevalence of COVID-19. In areas with more than 5 per cent positive cases, individual samples should be sent for testing, the advisory said.

The medical body also said a feasibility study for this was done at Lucknow's King George Medical University, on the basis of which they have given their recommendations. 

A final call is expected to be taken by the health ministry.

The ICMR has so far been able to test a little more than 2.1 lakh samples - a minimal amount compared to country's 1.3 billion population - due to the paucity of testing kits. 

The government also conducts the test for free, private laboratories are allowed to charge a minimal amount.

But mass testing is one of the ways of averting the virus passing into the third stage of transmission, where it spreads among the community, making tracing and isolation of suspected patients impossible.

Under the circumstances, the doctors expect "pool testing" to at least partially address the situation.