TABLE 4.

Testing of the multiple‐swab protocol in a nursing home

Pool number	ORF region		E‐gene
	Individual‐swab NAT	Multiple‐swab NAT	Individual‐swab NAT	Multiple‐swab NAT
1	19.54	21.53	20.21	22.23
2	31.24	30.26	32.89	32.19
3	25.00	22.86	25.90	23.68
4	20.95	21.33	21.49	22.11
9	31.35	31.58	33.64	33.52

Note: P‐value was evaluated with the paired T‐Test. The P‐value was .44 and .46 between the combined Ct values from the individual sample NAT and multiple swab tube NAT of the ORF 1a/b region and the E‐gene, respectively. All samples were tested in a multiple‐swab format of 10 swabs per minipool. Comparative results of the five multiple‐swab tubes containing SARS‐CoV‐2 positive sample (multiple‐swab Tubes 1‐4 and 9) are shown.

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