Sample pooling, a population screening strategy for SARS-CoV2 to prevent future outbreak and mitigate the “second-wave” of infection of the virus

Problem How do we manage treatment and stabilization in clinical settings and static population communities like assisted living facility settings of their patient or resident populations during and post the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic? Scope This proposal explores the possible and predicted changes to standard operating procedures to the facility management and associated landscape and focuses on series of deployments, during and post peak SARS-CoV-2 activity, and will outline possible models for the current medical facility model that we operate with. This article primarily focuses on non-emergency facility management. Assumptions and understanding of the field With a reduction in the numbers nationally, patients are highly motivated and likely to seek non-emergency and planned medical procedural treatment as early as possible as social distancing measures are eased and restrictions on non-urgent procedures are lifted. Conclusions and next steps An initial pan-national shutdown and suspension of services was necessary in an effort to ensure that essential medical services and resources were not strained. The authors feel that a strategic resumption of regular non-emergency treatments around the United States and continued provision of services at care facilities is possible with innovative testing strategies like pooled screening of large populations at a manageable price point. Moreover, pooling as a strategy when used widely, would be extremely effective at predicting outbreaks of the virus and as an effect help in mitigating the spread of the virus in its “second-wave”. We have developed one such innovative pooling strategy that can be easily deployed across laboratories and reduce the cost of population wide COVID-19 testing significantly