ISLAMABAD – In a first, KP government to go for pool testing of COVID – 19patients enhancing capacity to five times.
According to KP’s Health Minister, Taimur Khan Jhagra, the province isgoing to start pool testing for COVID-19, increasing its testing capacityby 5 times.
The pool testing will be carried out at the Khyber Medical University(KMU), the minister said in a press briefing.
KMU, KP’s flagship coronavirus testing lab, has conducted 27 trials of pooltesting. The results of the tests were 100% accurate. As a result, KMU isnow mandated to perform pool tests.——————————*Pool Testing*
Pool testing involves taking swab samples from all individuals in a samplepopulation and carrying out a combined test of them using the PCR procedure.
For instance, health officials have to take swab samples from a samplepopulation of 200 individuals and test them for COVID-19.
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In individual testing, officials must have to test 200 swab samplesindividually which consumes a lot of time and resources.
In pool testing, the population can be divided into 40 pools comprisingeach of 5 swab samples. Now, health authorities get to test each poolcollectively rather than testing all 200 individuals.
If the result of a specific pool comes back negative, it means that theentire pool is free from the disease. However, if a specific pool testspositive, it means that this pool is infected. Now, all 5 people in thispool have to be tested individually for the disease.
The pool testing process is not only faster than individual testing but italso increases the overall testing capacity. Germany and other Europeanstates are carrying out pool testing which has increased their testingcapacity manifold.
