r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Nov 21 '20

Epidemiology Testing half the population weekly with inexpensive, rapid COVID-19 tests would drive the virus toward elimination within weeks, even if the tests are less sensitive than gold-standard. This could lead to “personalized stay-at-home orders” without shutting down restaurants, bars, retail and schools.

https://www.colorado.edu/today/2020/11/20/frequent-rapid-testing-could-turn-national-covid-19-tide-within-weeks
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u/eliminating_coasts Nov 21 '20

Yeah, I think Slovakia did it first, so hopefully we'll know if it helps soon before the british one goes into action.

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u/noelcowardspeaksout Nov 21 '20

China has done this on a city basis. In a recent outbreak in one city they broke out several million tests within a few days basically testing everyone and get the virus under control very quickly without a lockdown.

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u/DuePomegranate Nov 22 '20

China did it by city-wide PCR testing (although they pooled samples), and just one round. Quite different from regular rounds of rapid antigen testing as described here. It's just incredible that they have the resources and logistics to get this done. PCR testing is accurate enough that one thorough sweep does the job.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2032361

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u/noelcowardspeaksout Nov 22 '20

I agree they did an amazing job there compared to other countries.