{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"medRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,16]],"date-time":"2026-01-16T06:59:58Z","timestamp":1768546798669,"version":"3.49.0"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,27]]},"group-title":"Infectious Diseases (except HIV\/AIDS)","reference-count":8,"publisher":"openRxiv","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,27]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>The World Health Organization currently recommends that governments scale up testing for COVID-19 infection. We performed health economic analyses projecting whether the additional costs from screening would be offset by the avoided costs with hospitalizations. We analysed Portuguese COVID-19 data up until the 22nd March 2020, and estimated the additional number of cases that would be detected if different testing rates and frequencies of positive results would have been observed. We projected that, in most scenarios, the costs with scaling up COVID-19 tests would be lower than savings with hospitalization costs, rendering large scale testing cost-saving.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1101\/2020.03.22.20041137","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,27]],"date-time":"2020-03-27T14:35:13Z","timestamp":1585319713000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Is scaling-up COVID-19 testing cost-saving?"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1277-3401","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bernardo","family":"Sousa-Pinto","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Jo\u00e3o Almeida","family":"Fonseca","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Altamiro","family":"Costa-Pereira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Francisco Nuno","family":"Rocha-Gon\u00e7alves","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"key":"2020111810253221000_2020.03.22.20041137v1.1","unstructured":"Offord C. Governments must ramp up COVID-10 Testing, says WHO. The Scientist. 18th March 2020. (https:\/\/www.the-scientist.com\/news-opinion\/governments-must-ramp-up-covid-19-testing-says-who-67287) [last accessed \u2013 21st March 2020]."},{"key":"2020111810253221000_2020.03.22.20041137v1.2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.367.6484.1287"},{"key":"2020111810253221000_2020.03.22.20041137v1.3","unstructured":"Portuguese National Institute of Statistics [Instituto Nacional de Estat\u00edstica] (https:\/\/www.ine.pt\/) [last accessed \u2013 22nd March 2020]."},{"key":"2020111810253221000_2020.03.22.20041137v1.4","unstructured":"Portuguese Health Directorate. COVID-19 \u2013 Portuguese epidemiological report updated at 22nd March 2020 [Direc\u00e7\u00e3o-Geral da Sa\u00fade. COVID-19 - Relat\u00f3rio de Situa\u00e7\u00e3o. Situa\u00e7\u00e3o Epidemiol\u00f3gica em Portugal. Actualizado a 22 de Mar\u00e7o de 2020]. (https:\/\/www.dgs.pt\/em-destaque\/relatorio-de-situacao-n-020-22032020-pdf.aspx) [last accessed \u2013 22nd March 2020]."},{"key":"2020111810253221000_2020.03.22.20041137v1.5","unstructured":"Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare Administrative Contractor COVID-19 Test Pricing March 12, 2020 (https:\/\/www.cms.gov\/files\/document\/mac-covid-19-test-pricing.pdf) [last accessed \u2013 22nd March 2020]."},{"key":"2020111810253221000_2020.03.22.20041137v1.6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1515\/cclm-2020-0285"},{"key":"2020111810253221000_2020.03.22.20041137v1.7","unstructured":"Food and Drug Administration. Emergency Use Authorizations: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Emergency Use Authorizations for Medical Devices (https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/medical-devices\/emergency-situations-medical-devices\/emergency-use-authorizations#coronavirus2019) [last accessed \u2013 22nd March 2020]."},{"key":"2020111810253221000_2020.03.22.20041137v1.8","unstructured":"Food and Drug Administration. Policy for Diagnostic Tests for Coronavirus Disease-2019 during the Public Health Emergency (https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/regulatory-information\/search-fda-guidance-documents\/policy-diagnostic-tests-coronavirus-disease-2019-during-public-health-emergency) [last accessed \u2013 22nd March 2020]."}],"container-title":[],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/syndication.highwire.org\/content\/doi\/10.1101\/2020.03.22.20041137","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,15]],"date-time":"2026-01-15T13:35:29Z","timestamp":1768484129000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/medrxiv.org\/lookup\/doi\/10.1101\/2020.03.22.20041137"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,27]]},"references-count":8,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1101\/2020.03.22.20041137","relation":{},"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,27]]},"subtype":"preprint"}}