FDA approves pooled testing for coronavirus

How it works: If a pooled sample comes back negative, all patients are presumed coronavirus free. If a test is positive, each sample must be individually tested to find out which was positive.

• The FDA warned that pooling tests is most efficient in areas with low prevalence because most results are expected to be negative.
• If used in areas with high infection rates, health workers may use more resources to determine which samples in the pool are positive.

What they're saying: “This [emergency use authorization] for sample pooling is an important step forward in getting more COVID-19 tests to more Americans more quickly while preserving testing supplies,” said FDA commissioner Stephen M. Hahn.

• “Sample pooling becomes especially important as infection rates decline and we begin testing larger portions of the population.”

Go deeper: Buildings are getting tested for coronavirus, too