The diagnosis of coronavirus disease−19 (COVID-19) relies on the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2) RNA by real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction in respiratory samples. Rapid increase in the COVID-19 cases across the world requires fast and efficient testing as testing capacity is a bottleneck in diagnosis. In this context, pooling strategy can be opted for rapid testing in a cost-effective manner. In this study, the authors have optimized and compared the effect of pooling (5 and 10 samples) before and after nucleic acid extraction. It was concluded that there was no significant difference in the SARS CoV-2 RNA detection in the pools prepared at sample or RNA level. Even after pooling, 10-fold dilution was detectable with 3–cycle threshold value change in both type of pools when compared with individual samples. Hence, sample pool size of 10 can be used in low-prevalent areas, and testing capacity can be substantially increased.

冠状病毒19型（COVID-19）的诊断依赖于通过呼吸样本中的实时逆转录聚合酶链反应检测重症急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS CoV-2）RNA。由于检测能力是诊断的瓶颈，全世界COVID-19病例的迅速增加需要快速有效的检测。在这种情况下，可以选择合并策略以经济高效的方式进行快速测试。在这项研究中，作者优化并比较了核酸提取之前和之后合并（5和10个样品）的效果。结论是，在样品或RNA水平制备的库中SARS CoV-2 RNA检测没有显着差异。即使汇集起来 与单个样品相比，两种类型的样品池均可检测到3循环阈值变化，可检测到10倍稀释。因此，可以在低流行区域中使用10个样本池，并且可以显着提高测试能力。