The current testing rate in India is lower than what it needs to be. However, to improve the testing rate, new avenues must be explored to lower the cost of testing further. Second, by our estimates, pooled testing (mixing several samples in a batch and then testing the lot) can bring down the unit cost of testing for public labs by over 50%. Third, combining pooled testing with consolidated procurement can bring down the unit cost of testing by an additional 15%. Thus, by implementing just these two strategies, the cost of an RT-PCR test can be reduced by over 60%.

Source: Mint April 29, 2021 18:56 UTC