Universal Screening with Sample Pooling in Preoperative Patients as Long-term Strategy in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 through pool testing for COVID-19: an integrative review

INTRODUCTION

The pool testing technique optimizes the number of tests performed and reduces the delivery time of results, which is an interesting strategy for the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This integrative review investigated studies in which pool testing was carried out for epidemiological or screening purposes to analyze its clinical or cost effectiveness and assessed the applicability of this method in high-, middle-, and low-income countries.

METHODS

This integrative review used primary studies published in the MEDLINE, EMBASE, Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS), and Cochrane Library databases.

RESULTS

A total of 435 studies were identified: 35.3% were carried out in Asia, 29.4% in Europe, 29.4% in North America, and 5.9% in Oceania.

CONCLUSIONS

This review suggests that pool testing in the general population may be a useful surveillance strategy to detect new variants of SARS-CoV-2 and to evaluate the period of immunogenicity and global immunity from vaccines.

Universal Screening of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 with Polymerase Chain Reaction Testing after Rally of Trainee Doctors

There were two rallies of medical students and trainee doctors, where 9,000 participants gathered. We performed polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based universal screening for the participants using pooling at a tertiary care hospital. Around 609 (94%) of 646 participants underwent PCR tests for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; all of them tested negative. Our data suggested low transmission rates in open air mass gatherings when appropriate personal protective practices were followed.