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ALEXANDRA: THAT NEW PROCESS INVOLVES POOLING SAMPLES TO TEST THEM IN A GROUP, WHICH MEANS USING FEWER TEST KITS AND GETTING MORE RESULTS FASTER. IT’S A COMMON REFRAIN AROUND THE COUNTRY, LIMITED TESTING FOR COVID-19. BUT NEBRASKA’S CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER DR. GARY ANTHONE SAYS THE PUBLIC HEALTH LAB’S DIRECTOR, PETER IWEN, HAD AN IDEA TO SAVE SUPPLIES AND TIME WHILE INCREASING TESTING CAPACITY. >> HE WAS WONDERING IF THERE WAS A WAY HE COULD SO-CALLED POOL SOME OF THE SAMPLES TOGETHER, SO HE COULD SAVE ON THE REAGENTS USED TO RUN THE TEST. ALEXANDRA: REAGENTS ARE A CRITICAL PART OF THE TEST AND ARE IN SHORT SUPPLY. ON TUESDAY, THE PUBLIC HEALTH LAB HAD SAMPLES FROM 60 PEOPLE TO TEST. THEY SPLIT THEM INTO GROUPS OF FIVE. TWO BATCHES HAD A POSITIVE RESULT, SO THEY HAD TO INDIVIDUALLY TEST THOSE. BUT IN TOTAL, THE LAB USED ONLY 24 TESTS FOR 60 SAMPLES. >> HE SAVED MORE THAN 50% OF THE REAGENTS BY DOING IT THAT WAY. IT’S AN INGENIOUS IDEA. ALEXANDRA: OUT OF THOSE SAMPLES ANTHONE SAYS THEY FOUND TWO , POSITIVE TESTS FOR COVID-19. >> WE KNEW ONLY 5% OF THE TESTS WE WERE RUNNING WERE GOING TO BE POSITIVE, SO IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA TO SAVE ON REAGENTS. ALEXANDRA: ANTHONE SAYS THEY VALIDATED THE PROCESS BEFORE PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE, AND HE SAYS IT IS A METHOD ALREADY USED FOR OTHER TYPES OF TESTING. >> IT IS NOT A NOVEL OR NEW IDEA TO DO THIS POOL SAMPLING. IT’S JUST THAT DR. IWEN WAS THE FIRST TO THINK OF THIS FOR THE COVID TEST. ALEXANDRA: PREVIOUSLY, THE LAB WAS ABLE TO RUN ABOUT 100 TESTS A DAY. NOW, ANTHONE SAYS THEY’VE QUADRUPLED CAPACITY AND CAN POTENTIALLY RUN UP TO 400 SAMPLES IN A GIVEN DAY.

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It's a refrain heard around the country: limited COVID-19 testing.Now, Nebraska's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Gary Anthone said the director of the state's Public Health Lab, Peter Iwen, is implementing an idea to save supplies and time while increasing testing capacity."He was wondering, if there was a way that he could so-called pool some of the samples together so that he could save on the reagents that are used to run the test," Anthone said. Those reagents, a critical part of the testing process, have been in short supply. On Tuesday, the Nebraska Public Health lab began pool testing COVID-19 samples from people in the state. The lab had 60 samples to test. They split those into groups of five, running 12 tests, instead of 60 individually. Two of the groups had to be re-run. Two other groups showed a positive result, so all 10 samples were tested individually. In total, Anthone said the lab used 24 tests for the 60 samples. "He saved more than 50% of the reagents by doing it that way. It's an ingenious idea," Anthone said. Out of the 60 samples tested Tuesday, two came up positive for COVID-19. "We knew that only 5% of the tests we were running were going to be positive," Anthone said, "So it seems like a good idea to save on reagents." According to Anthone, the lab verified the process before putting it into practice. Iwen said they used previously tested samples to verify that the pooling would work. Anthone said this is a method already used for other types of testing. "It's not a novel or a new idea to do this pool sampling," he said, "It's just that Dr. Iwen was the first to think of this for the Covid test." Anthone said the lab previously could run around 100 tests a day. He said this new process has allowed it to quadruple its capacity, with the ability to test up to 400 samples daily.