TABLE 3.

Testing of the novel multiple‐swab protocol in testing of 50 symptomatic patients

Pool number	ORF region		E‐gene
	Individual‐swab NAT	Multiple‐swab NAT	Individual‐swab NAT	Multiple‐swab NAT
1	29.07	29.21	30.07	30.61
4	33.85	40.00	36.28	36.34
5	21.24	19.03	21.72	19.65
6	26.12	26.23	26.65	27.11

Note: P value was evaluated with the paired t test. The P value was 0.299 and 0.354 between the combined Ct values from the individual‐sample NAT and multiple‐swab tube NAT of the ORF 1a region and the E‐gene, respectively. Comparative results of the four 5‐sample minipools containing a SARS‐CoV‐2 positive sample (multiple‐swab Tubes 1, 4, 5, and 6) are shown.

Abbreviations: Ct, cycle threshold; NAT, nucleic acid testing; SARS‐CoV‐2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.