Pooled testing dramatically lowers costs without sacrificing accuracy
December 22, 2020
Update (Jan. 27, 2021): Our pilot program is now closed! If you’d like to try out our service, get started with a baseline test today.
Classroom pooling is a method of surveillance testing where lower nasal swabs from everyone in a class are mixed together and tested with a single molecular test. This gives schools and districts population-level data to make informed public health decisions at a fraction of the cost of individual testing plans.
We are running several pilots now to test logistics and operations at schools around the country. Our goal is to build infrastructure to make COVID-19 testing accessible for K-12 schools nationwide.
What we hope to learn:
Some quotes from participants in the pilots:
Principal: “The Ginkgo student-administered COVID testing is an easy process for my scholars…our scholars learn and can be an active participant in the community fight of the spread of COVID-19.”
Teacher: “So now that you’ve done it once, will you do it again?”
1st grader: “200 million times more!”
Sixth Grader: “The test was not bad at all. It just tickles.”