Covid testing with compressed sensing

Pooled testing for Covid-19 is done by mixing samples from multiple individuals together, and testing the pooled sample. If the pooled result comes back positive, then people in the group are tested individually. Pooled testing allows for more people to be tested and reduces the total cost of testing. In https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4267, it is reported that pooled testing reduced the number of test by 76%. Many countries are using pooled testing.

Compressed sensing can be used to achieve even higher reduction in the number of tests. https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.05759 reports that the reduction in the number of required tests can be more than 90% when the number of positive cases is 1%. Additionally, compressed sensing use only one round of testing unlike pooled testing which uses two rounds.

Compressed sensing has been around for more than 15 years with many great applications e.g. MRI, and is well understood. It has the potential to help in the fight against Covid-19.