FEAT: A Flexible, Efficient and Accurate Test for COVID-19

  1. Linjiajie Fang
  2. Bing-Yi Jing
  3. Shen Ling
  4. Qing Yang

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Abstract

Early detection of COVID-19 is critical in mitigating the spread of the virus. Commonly used tests include nucleic acid detection, antibodies detection via blood testing and CT imaging. Some tests are accurate but time-consuming, while others are cheaper but less accurate. Exactly which test to use is constrained by various considerations, such as availability, cost, accuracy and efficiency. In this paper, we propose a Flexible, Efficient and Accurate Test (FEAT). FEAT is based on group testing with simple but careful design by incorporating ideas such as close contact cliques and repeated tests. FEAT could dramatically improve the efficiency and/or accuracy for any existing test. For example, for accurate but slow test such as RT-PCR, FEAT can improve efficiency by multiple times without compromising accuracy. On the other hand, for fast but inaccurate tests, FEAT can sharply lower the false negative rates (FNR) and greatly increase efficiency. Theoretical justifications are provided. We point out some scenarios where the FEAT can be effectively employed.

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  1. Version published to 10.1101/2020.06.04.20122473v3 on medRxiv
  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.06.04.20122473v2 on medRxiv
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    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your code and data.

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

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    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

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  4. Version published to 10.1101/2020.06.04.20122473v1 on medRxiv