  COVID-19 has resulted in a global health crisis that may become even more
acute over the upcoming months. One of the main reasons behind the current
rapid growth of COVID-19 in the U.S. population is the limited availability of
testing kits and the relatively-high cost of screening tests. In this draft, we
demonstrate the effectiveness of group testing (pooling) ideas to accelerate
testing for COVID-19. This draft is semi-tutorial in nature and is written for
a broad audience with interest in mathematical formulations relevant to
COVID-19 testing. Therefore, ideas are presented through illustrative examples
rather than through purely theoretical formulations. The focus is also on pools
of size less than 64 such as what is practical with current RT-PCR technology.
