Group testing as a strategy for COVID-19 epidemiological monitoring and community surveillance
Fig 1
(A) Sketch of an RT-qPCR fluorescence intensity signal for a positive patient without pooling (solid red line) a single positive patient in a pool of 64 patients (dashed red curve) and for a negative sample representing the response of an artefact (dotted magenta curve); as pooling dilutes the initial concentration, the pooled response (dashed red curve) is expected to be close to the translation x → x + 6 from that of a single patient (solid red line). (B) Sketch of the distribution of threshold values for RT-qPCR individual tests (solid blue line) or in pools 64 (dashed red curve); part of the distribution crosses the limit of detection of the test (figured as the grey area) at the detection threshold dcens.