Group Testing against COVID-19

Christian Gollier (christian.gollier@tse-fr.eu) and Olivier Gossner (olivier.gossner@cnrs.fr)
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Olivier Gossner: CNRS – CREST, Ecole polytechnique, and London School of Economics

No 2020-04, Working Papers from Center for Research in Economics and Statistics

Abstract: It is well-known that group testing is an e cient strategy to screen for the presence of a virus. It consists in pooling n individual samples with a single test using RT-PCR. If no individual in the group is infected, the group test is negative. Thus, a single test may reveal this crucial information. We show how group testing can be optimized in three applications to multiply the power of tests against Covid-19: Estimating virus prevalence to measure the evolution of the pandemic; bringing negative groups back to work to exit the current lockdown; and testing for individual infectious status to treat sick people. For an infection level around 2%, group testing could multiply the power of testing by a factor 20. The implementation of this strategy in the short run requires limited investments and could bypass the current immense shortage of testing capacity.

Pages: 11 pages
Date: 2020-03-28, Revised 2020-04-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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http://crest.science/RePEc/wpstorage/2020-04.pdf CREST working paper version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Group Testing Against Covid-19 (2020)
Working Paper: Group testing against Covid-19 (2020)
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