Feasibility Study of Mixing Throat Swab Samples for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 Screening

• DOI: 10.1007/s12250-020-00254-x
• Publication Date: 2020-07-08T05:33:39Z
• Authors: Yang Han; Qingyu Yang; Ying Liu; Ting Shu; Li Yue; Ting Xiao; Qin Zeng; Ying Wu; Xi Zhou; Dingyu Zhang
• Keywords: Throat; Nucleic acid test; Nucleic acid detection; 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak

At present, viral nucleic acids are generally sampled using throat swabs and detected by quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). However, the capacity for SARS-CoV-2 acid detection is largely limited number of instruments, kits, experienced laboratory personnel available. These limitations have caused low screening efficiency, which leads to a lag in identifying potential infections may then exacerbate spread COVID-19 (Carter et al. 2020). Therefore, novel qRT-PCR approaches required enhance testing efficiency.In this study, we aimed explore practical method procedure 96-well plates pooled swab samples. This reduce cost increase existing instrument consequently facilitating containment worldwide.