Covid-19 mass testing facilities could end the epidemic rapidly

Centrally organised facilities with the capacity to test the entire UK population weekly (in 6 days at 10 million tests per day) can be made available much more quickly and cheaply than a vaccine, probably within weeks. Only laboratories that do PCR routinely would participate, subject to central qu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBMJ (Online) Vol. 368; p. m1163
Main Author Peto, Julian
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England BMJ Publishing Group LTD 22.03.2020
Subjects
Asymptomatic Infections
Betacoronavirus
Clinical Laboratory Techniques
Coronavirus Infections - diagnosis
Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology
Coronavirus Infections - transmission
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 Testing
Disease Outbreaks - prevention & control
Homeless people
Humans
Laboratories
Mass Screening - methods
Medical screening
Pharynx
Pneumonia, Viral - diagnosis
Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology
Pneumonia, Viral - transmission
Public Health Surveillance
SARS-CoV-2
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
United Kingdom > UK
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Summary:Centrally organised facilities with the capacity to test the entire UK population weekly (in 6 days at 10 million tests per day) can be made available much more quickly and cheaply than a vaccine, probably within weeks. Only laboratories that do PCR routinely would participate, subject to central quality control and at cost price. Contacts of positive people who test negative could choose continued home quarantine or, at little extra risk, choose to join a group of up to 10 test-negative contacts (usually with other family members).
Bibliography:SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Correspondence-2
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ISSN:1756-1833
1756-1833
DOI:10.1136/bmj.m1163