ArticlePLoS computational biology2021
Optimizing testing for COVID-19 in India.
Article in PLoS computational biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Essential role of primary health care during COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned from PUSPA (champion and integrated community health center) program in West Java, Indonesia.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- Interpreting epidemiological surveillance data: a modelling study based on Pune city.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Geographical access to COVID-19 testing centers in India.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Modelling a potential zoonotic spillover event of H5N1 influenza.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Projecting the Impact and Costs of Near Point-of-Care Tuberculosis Screening Assays in Community-based Active Case Finding.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2025Article
- Exploring affordable and effective pandemic containment measures in lower-income countries with a spatial SEIR model: a case study in South Africa.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Real-world usage of mass rapid antigen testing for COVID-19 in long-term care facilities and support programmes: results from long-term surveillance in North-Eastern Germany.BMC public health · 2025Article
- BharatSim: An agent-based modelling framework for India.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- An adaptive testing strategy for efficient utilization of healthcare resources during an epidemic.Journal of theoretical biology · 2023Article
- The impact of earlier reopening to travel in the Western Pacific on SARS-CoV-2 transmission.IJID regions · 2023Article
- Is there a role for RDTs as we live with COVID-19? An assessment of different strategies.BMJ global health · 2023Article
- Impact of antigen test target failure and testing strategies on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 variants.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Modelling the first wave of COVID-19 in India.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Lessons for improved COVID-19 surveillance from the scale-up of malaria testing strategies.Malaria journal · 2022Review
- Review
- Can Self-Administered Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) Help Rural India? An Evaluation of the CoviSelf Kit as a Response to the 2019-2022 COVID-19 Pandemic.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Ranking Methodology for Evaluating Region-Wise COVID-19 Testing Performance in India.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Two-test algorithms for infectious disease diagnosis: Implications for COVID-19.PLOS global public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
COVID-19 testing across India uses a mix of two types of tests. Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) are relatively inexpensive point-of-care lateral-flow-assay tests, but they are also less sensitive. The reverse-transcriptase polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) test has close to 100% sensitivity and specificity in a laboratory setting, but delays in returning results, as well as increased costs relative to RATs, may vitiate this advantage. India-wide, about 49% of COVID-19 tests are RATs, but some Indian states, including the large states of Uttar Pradesh (pop. 227.9 million) and Bihar (pop. 121.3 million) use a much higher proportion of such tests. Here we show, using simulations based on epidemiological network models, that the judicious use of RATs can yield epidemiological outcomes comparable to those obtained through RT-PCR-based testing and isolation of positives, provided a few conditions are met. These are (a) that RAT test sensitivity is not too low, (b) that a reasonably large fraction of the population, of order 0.5% per day, can be tested, (c) that those testing positive are isolated for a sufficient duration, and that (d) testing is accompanied by other non-pharmaceutical interventions for increased effectiveness. We assess optimal testing regimes, taking into account test sensitivity and specificity, background seroprevalence and current test pricing. We find, surprisingly, that even 100% RAT test regimes should be acceptable, from both an epidemiological as well as a economic standpoint, provided the conditions outlined above are met.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.