LUCKNOW/ MUMBAI: In a bid to speed up Covid-19 tests in the state, Uttar Pradesh government has decided to adopt group testing or pooled sample testing, which is being used in Germany and Israel at present to contain the virus spread. Maharashtra has also sought permission from the Centre and the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to allow pool testing, state health minister Rajesh Tope said in Mumbai on Saturday.The method involves mixing of several samples to create a large or super sample and putting them up for test in one go instead of testing every single sample one at a time. It's not new and was used widely by the US to screen patients of syphilis during the World War II.The technique now has been validated for coronavirus testing and is being used successfully by Israel and Germany. Health officials in UP are in the final stages of rolling out the method.“We are the first one in the country to be rolling this out from next week. While it is in use in Germany and Israel, ICMR is working on a standard operating procedure (SOP),” confirmed Vikasendu Agarwal, state surveillance officer, UP. “In all probability, the super sample size will be made from the swab of 10 persons and put to test. Ten samples will be collected each day in the beginning and scaled up later. This means that we will be able to test 100 persons from a pool of two or three districts every day,” he explained.Epidemiologist and community health specialist, Vishwajeet Kumar said that adoption of the technique was a smart move. “It will speed up sample processing by several folds at much lower cost. Consider this: If 10 super samples are tested, the outcome for 100 can be studied at a cost of just 10 diagnostic kits instead of 100.”