Testing 10 People at Once for COVID-10!... Seocho-gu, Seoul's First to Implement 'Pooled Testing Method' in Nursing Hospitals

A method of mixing multiple specimens into one sample allows testing up to 10 people at once

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Despite the recent continuous decrease in new COVID-19 cases and the stabilization of the situation, concerns are rising over covert cluster infections within local communities due to many cases of asymptomatic transmission or re-positive test results after recovery.

In this context, Seocho-gu (Mayor Eunhee Cho) has become a topic of interest by being the first in Seoul to implement the ‘COVID-19 pooled testing method’ in nursing hospitals to quickly identify contacts and asymptomatic infected individuals and prevent further transmission.

The ‘pooled testing method’ is useful for high-risk groups such as residents of nursing facilities who require periodic testing for infection prevention despite having no symptoms. It involves mixing multiple specimens into one sample for testing; if the test result is positive, the remaining specimens are individually retested to confirm infection status.

Since no retesting is needed if the result is ‘negative,’ this method allows multiple tests to be completed at once. For example, specimens from 10 people are combined and tested; if negative, all 10 are quickly classified as uninfected. If positive, all 10 individuals are retested individually to identify the true infected person(s).

This testing method has been continuously requested by the medical community and was introduced in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on the 6th as a way to efficiently use limited resources and monitor community transmission. It reduces the number of tests in large-scale short-term screenings and speeds up the testing process.

From April 14 to 21, the district conducted COVID-19 tests using the ‘pooled testing method’ on a total of 1,108 patients and staff at all four nursing hospitals located within the district.

This was only five days after the government officially announced on the 9th the introduction of the method and its plan to strengthen testing using the ‘pooled testing method’ in high-risk group facilities.

While the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency stated that it was reviewing target areas and hospitals, the district proactively introduced the ‘pooled testing method’ to test residents, including asymptomatic individuals, in high-risk group communal living facilities to prevent cluster outbreaks in advance. All results were negative.

So far, the district has made various efforts to prevent COVID-19 infections in high-risk group communal facilities such as nursing hospitals. These efforts include comprehensive inspections before visits, mandatory COVID-19 testing for new caregivers, and regular disinfection and quarantine measures.

In particular, a real-time one-on-one connection system between nursing hospitals and the district health center has been established to promptly and thoroughly manage pneumonia patients and abnormal signs within high-risk facilities.

Seocho-gu Mayor Eunhee Cho stated, “Under the relaxed social distancing system, the district will not let its guard down against cluster infections and will implement various preventive measures to ensure flawless COVID-19 infection prevention.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.