FDA Authorizes Pooled Testing

On Saturday, July 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) to Quest Diagnostics to authorize its test for use with pooled samples, containing up to four individual swab specimens collected under observation and combined into one sample for testing. This is the first pooled sample authorization. In situations with relatively low positive test results, this can significantly boost testing capacity, since multiple samples can be determined to be negative in one single test, advancing the goal of being able to perform millions of tests per day.