# Group Testing under Superspreading Dynamics

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.15988 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.15988/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 2 of its 30 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 30 Jun 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Quantifying the Effects of Contact Tracing, Testing, and Containment Measures in the Presence of Infection Hotspots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.07641/) (2020)
- [Noisy Pooled PCR for Virus Testing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.02689/) (2020)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Testing is recommended for all close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 patients. However, existing group testing methods are oblivious to the circumstances of contagion provided by contact tracing. Here, we build upon a well-known semi-adaptive pool testing method, Dorfman's method with imperfect tests, and derive a simple group testing method based on dynamic programming that is specifically designed to use the information provided by contact tracing. Experiments using a variety of reproduction numbers and dispersion levels, including those estimated in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, show that the pools found using our method result in a significantly lower number of tests than those found using standard Dorfman's method, especially when the number of contacts of an infected individual is small. Moreover, our results show that our method can be more beneficial when the secondary infections are highly overdispersed.