COVID-19 pool testing

The “COVID-19 Pool Testing” project seeks out to increase the number of coronavirus tests while using the least possible amount of testing kits, considering them a limited resource at this moment. Countries should increase the number of tests and increase isolation and tracking of those who were exposed to the virus. Likewise, testing should be done for each suspected case, and if it´s positive, isolate and identify those who were in contact with the case, so they can be tested as well.

Justification:

• It is possible to test several people simultaneously for COVID-19 (“pool testing”)

• The risk for infection can be estimated through the patient’s clinical and epidemiological traits. The samples from low-risk people could be analyzed through pool testing.

• Through the “COVID-19 Pool Testing” strategy, a testing protocol clusters the samples according to their risk for infection, and they are analyzed as a group. If the test is negative, none of the people in the group is infected. This way, less testing kits are needed, considering that not all people in the group had to be tested. However, if the pool testing is positive, at least 1 person in the group is infected. In that case, the process is repeated, generating new testing groups, until those individuals who are infected are identified.

• Through the use of the "COVID-19 pool testing", taking into consideration the risk for COVID-19 infection, the testing utility of the kits can be multiplied by a factor of 2,65 (for those with a 5% risk of being infected), or up to 21,75 (for those with a 0,1% risk of being infected.

Pool Testing Strategy

What problems are we trying to tackle with this project?

• Registry for Clinical and Epidemiological Data

  • • Collect data in a standardized manner to estimate the a priori risk for COVID-19 infection

    • Project Scope:

      • To generate or adapt existing software to register data without ambiguity or errors.

• Estimation of the A Priori Risk for Infection

  • • To estimate the risk for infection using clinical and epidemiological data

    • Project Scope:

      • Integrate existing machine learning models to estimate above mentioned risk.

• Creation of Pool Testing Protocols

  • • To generate pool testing protocols (as to how to group testing samples), according to the risk for infection and lab capacity (maximum simultaneous testing, maximum amount of tests per person, maximum time limit).

    • Project Scope

      • Software the generates pool testing protocols according to the risk from each sample.

• Testing

  • • Generate aplicable manuals to existing equipment for pool testing.

    • Project Scope

      • Study different testing techniques to generate manuals.

      • Resolve the many practical problems the pool testing implies.

      • Assure that the different technical proposals are feasible and applicable.

• Public Health Policy

  • • Development of political policy of containment according to an increase in the testing capacity.

If you are interested in being part of the development team, you are look at what we are doing on this page