Strategies and foundations for scientific discovery in longitudinal studies of bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a complex and dynamic condition with a typical onset in late adolescence or early adulthood followed by an episodic course with intervening periods of subthreshold symptoms or euthymia. It is complicated by the accumulation of comorbid medical and psychiatric disorders. The etiology of BD remains unknown and no reliable biological markers have yet been identified. This is likely due to lack of comprehensive ontological framework and, most importantly, the fact that most studies have been based on small nonrepresentative clinical samples with cross-sectional designs. We propose to establish large, global longitudinal cohorts of BD studied consistently in a multidimensional and multidisciplinary manner to determine etiology and help improve treatment. Herein we propose collection of a broad range of data that reflect the heterogenic phenotypic manifestations of BD that include dimensional and categorical measures of mood, neurocognitive, personality, behavior, sleep and circadian, life-story, and outcomes domains. In combination with genetic and biological information such an approach promotes the integrating and harmonizing of data within and across current ontology systems while supporting a paradigm shift that will facilitate discovery and become the basis for novel hypotheses.

A Study on the Health and Socioeconomic Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic and Barriers to Self-management of Diabetes during the Lockdown among Rural Residents of South India

Aim: To study the health and socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to assess the barriers to self-management of diabetes during the lockdown, in rural South India. Materials and Methods: Details of demographic, social, economic, migration and health status were collected using a structured questionnaire from participants aged & GE;18 years belonging to the 21 villages of Chengalpattu and Kancheepuram districts of Tamil Nadu state in south India as part of the Telemedicine pRoject for screENing Diabetes and its complications in rural Tamil Nadu (TREND) study. From the 11,249 TREND participants, a random list of 25% (n = 2812) was system-generated using random numbers and 2812 participants were contacted for the study, of whom 2511 individuals participated. Telephonic interviews were conducted during the lockdown from June to August 2020. Further, qualitative interviews(Focus group discussions) were conducted among 27 individuals with diabetes between September and December 2020. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The mean age of the study population was 43 & PLUSMN;14 years and 50.4% were women. Diabetes was present in 14.7%, hypertension in 31.9%, generalized and abdominal obesity in 33.3% and 46.5% respectively. When the lockdown was implemented in March 2020, 37% had migrated from urban to rural areas. Lack of daily wage jobs (68%), price of essential commodities (41.7%), social distancing/curfew (34.8%), mental fatigue/depression (14.7%), and loss of job (7.1%) were some reasons stated for their adverse social and financial circumstances. People with diabetes stated that they had to avoid or cut down their regular hospital visits due to travel restrictions. Many of the patients took the same medications for almost a year. Conclusion: Unemployment, poor mental health, and reduced household income were the most significant negative impacts faced by rural residents during the lockdown due to COVID-19. People with diabetes experienced disruptions in diabetes management due to the pandemic.

CLINICAL STUDY OF COVID ASSOCIATED RHINO-ORBITAL MUCOR MYCOSIS IN STATE COVID HOSPITAL

Background: Mucormycosis is one such infection which has shown a sudden rise during the second wave in India. (Our present study has been designed to all the confirmed cases of rhino orbital mucormycosis. In our study we have included all the rhinorbital mucormycosis cases that have been confirmed by microscopy and or radiological evidence.Mucormycosis (also called zygomycosis) is a serious fungal infection caused by agroup of molds called mucoromycetes. Materials and Methods: All the patients that have directly attended the ophthalmology OPD. Chief complaint with duration (Look for redness, watering, discharge & pain in the eye, diplopia, eyelid/ periocular swelling) facial swelling, eyelid/perioculay facial discoloration, Worsening headache, sudden drooping of eyelid (or) restricted eye movements, sudden loss of vision, facial parasthesia / anaesthesia, nasal discharge (blakish/ bloody/foul smell nasal stuffiness, dental pain. Results: Out of all 60 cases, 79 there were 47 males and 13 females. In this study 48.33% cases belongs to age group of 50-60 years followed by 36.66% belongs to age group of 60-70 years. Among the 60 patients who presented to hospital within 1 week of onset of symptoms likee pain redness watering et 35 of them got good vision, whereas among the 15 members who presented beyond 2 weeks after the onset of their symptoms only 7 got good vision while 2 of them got poor vision below 6/60 indicating the importance of early diagnosis. 65% cases affected at right eye and 63.33% cases showing symotoms like Redness, treatment under goes with total Restriction 42 members and Painful oculr movement in 43.33% cases. Conclusion: The second wave of COVID-19 in India has led to more deaths than the first. In just a few weeks, the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant became the dominant strain across India. It has since spread to about 40 nations, which include United Kingdom, Fiji and Singapore.18 the first case of Covid-19-related Mucormycosis has now been found in Chile. It is important to recognise at an early stage this infection, so as to potentially reduce soft and hard tissue necrosis and severe complications and alert colleagues of this mutilating and life threatening infection.

Social Rhythm Disruption is Associated with Greater Depressive Symptoms in People with Mood Disorders: Findings from a Multinational Online Survey During COVID-19.

OBJECTIVES: Societal restrictions imposed to prevent transmission of COVID-19 may challenge circadian-driven lifestyle behaviours, particularly amongst those vulnerable to mood disorders. The overarching aim of the present study was to investigate the hypothesis that, in the routine-disrupted environment of the COVID-19, amongst a sample of people living with mood disorders, greater social rhythm disruption would be associated with more severe mood symptoms. METHODS: We conducted a two-wave, multinational survey of 997 participants (MAge=39.75±13.39,Female=81.6%) who self-reported a mood disorder diagnosis (i.e., major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder). Respondents completed questionnaires assessing demographics, social rhythmicity (The Brief Social Rhythm Scale), depression symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), sleep quality and diurnal preference (The Sleep, Circadian Rhythms and Mood questionnaire) and stressful life events during the COVID-19 pandemic (The Social Readjustment Rating Scale). RESULTS: The majority of participants indicated COVID-19-related social disruption had affected the regularity of their daily routines to at least some extent (n = 788, 79.1%). As hypothesised, lower social rhythmicity was associated with greater depressive symptoms when tested cross-sectionally (standardised ß = -.25, t = -7.94, P = 0.000) and when tested using a 2-level hierarchical linear model across two time points (b = -0.14, t = -3.46, df = 264, P ≤ 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: These results are consistent with the social zeitgeber hypothesis proposing that mood disorders are sensitive to life events that disrupt social rhythms.

Preventive Oral Treatment of Episodic Migraine: An Overview.

BACKGROUND: Migraine is a common primary headache disorder and Episodic migraine is characterized by the occurrence of up to 14 headache days in a month. The preventive treatment of migraine is useful in patients with frequent migraine attacks, impaired activities of daily living, failure of acute pain management, disabling aura and limitations in the use of acute treatment. It is aimed at reducing headache frequency and intensity, improve response to acute treatment of migraine and improve the quality of life. AIM: To analyze the evidence for the efficacy and tolerability of preventive oral drugs used in the management of episodic migraine. METHODS: A narrative review of the references were reviewed by searching the literature for the articles published in PubMed in English language using all the following MeSH keywords "preventive treatment", "preventive oral treatment", AND "episodic migraine", "migraine". RESULTS: Out of articles identified in the search, 38 articles were reviewed for evidence and summarized. The various oral drugs used in the prevention of episodic migraine are antihypertensives (beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers and Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/Angiotensin receptor blockers), antidepressants (tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors), antiepileptic drugs (valproic acid, topiramate, lamotrigine) and other miscellaneous agents. HURT questionnaire and HALT 30 index are useful in assessing response to treatment in the follow up of migraine patients. CONCLUSION: An appropriately chosen oral drug is useful in the preventive treatment of episodic migraine. In patients, who fail to respond to the preventive treatment, it is essential to review the diagnosis of migraine, titrate the dosage and duration of preventive treatment and ensure patient compliance. In those patients who fail to respond to monotherapy, polytherapy is a useful option to be considered.

Delivery Robot Using GPS Technology

It is the service sector for any nation that offers the government the maximum income. This service industry comprises a broader range of services and every individual in the nation will be affected by any bad impacts on this sector. The covid pandemic has become a threat to good health and has created fear due to the spread of the virus and a serious impact on the economy and the livelihood of people in the country. Logistics and delivery are some of the areas badly affected by covid. Because this virus is a contagious disease and very quickly spreads to neighbours. The reduction of human interference in the delivery of goods was very important. This paper presents a delivery robot that can safely and securely deliver the goodseven for the virus affected persons since this robot is a virus free agent. The key features are face recognition, obstacle detection, live streaming, GPS tracking and we achieve these features using Raspberry Pi and Node MCU. The prototype we create is for small organizations such as colleges and hospitals where objects must be transported safely and securely. This robot can also be used to safely provide patients with medicines and food. This can be extended to a greater area and can be used to replace the normal human resources delivery system. © 2021 IEEE.

Frequent Itemset Generation Using Association Rule Mining Based on Hybrid Neural Network Based Billiard Inspired Optimization

The concept based on data mining has drawn considerable attention from various database professionals and research scholars. The progression of computer-based advancements, namely database management and data storage has facilitated the storage of large data and the data mining approaches are employed to gain valuable information from huge databases. Recently, several techniques to association rule mining (ARM) and frequent itemset mining (FIM) have been established;yet the efficiency based on execution time and scalability continues to be seen as a significant limitation that results in poor solution quality. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the consistency that signifies the total number of frequently discovered frequent itemsets. This paper proposes three different phases namely the pre-processing phase, FIM phase and ARM phase. In the first pre-processing phase, the Twitter databases are pre-processed and converted into a suitable format for FIM. Here, the tweets are converted into related feature sets and items. In the second FIM phase, an improved Apriori algorithm is 1utilized in mining and extracting the frequent Then in the final phase, an adaptive billiard inspired optimization (ABIO) algorithm which is the integration of neural network (NN) optimization algorithm and billiard inspired optimization (BIO) algorithm is proposed for the optimal generation of association rules with minimum support and confidence from the huge itemsets. Finally, the recent tweets based on covidvaccine, BTSlivestreaming, KFC, McDonald's as well as lockdown achieved using the hashtag is evaluated for various performance measures, like precision, recall, f-measure, execution time and memory utilization. Also, comparative analyses are performed to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed technique. © 2022 World Scientific Publishing Company.

Association rule mining based fuzzy manta ray foraging optimization algorithm for frequent itemset generation from social media

Nowadays, the concept of data mining is employed widely and created a great deal of attention due to its fast arrival. Numerous approaches to frequent itemsets and association rule mining (ARM) are exemplified in recent years, but still, the performances based on scalability and processing time are considered as a major drawback that results in obtaining the solutions with very poor quality. To overcome such shortcomings, this article proposes three significant phases, namely, the data pre-processing phase, data pre-processing, frequent itemset mining, and ARM. In data pre-processing phase, the collected twitter datasets are pre-processed to eliminate redundant data and convert them into an appropriate format for further mining. In the frequent itemset mining phase, an Apriori algorithm is employed for the exact mining of frequent itemsets. The ARM phase utilizes the fuzzy manta ray foraging (FMRF) optimization algorithm that involves the generation of association rules from the huge itemsets thereby achieving minimum confidence and minimum support value. Here, the recent tweets regarding Covid-19, trump2020, joebiden, draintheswamp, and Godzilla are the datasets collected from the Twitter web link. The experimental analysis and the comparative performances are performed for various simulation measures and the results reveal that the proposed approach provides effective performances when compared with various other existing approaches.

Adrift in time: the subjective experience of circadian challenge during COVID-19 amongst people with mood disorders.

Social distancing/lockdown policies during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic may alter social rhythms of people through imposition of restrictions on normal daily activities. This may in turn challenge circadian function, particularly in people with mood disorders. Although objective data describing the relationship between circadian disturbances and mood disorders exist, data regarding the subjective experience of circadian challenge is sparse, and its association with mood symptoms is unclear. The present qualitative study was one component of a mixed-methods multi-national project, which took advantage of widespread disruption to daily routines due to Government COVID-related lockdowns during 2020. The Behavior Emotion and Timing during COVID-19 (BEATCOVID) survey study included three open questions generating qualitative data on participants' subjective experience of social disruption due to social distancing/lockdown policies, two of which asked about the barriers and opportunities for stabilizing routines. Responses were coded and analyzed using Thematic Analysis. A total of N = 997 participants responded to at least one of the free-text questions. Four themes were identified: 1) loss of daily timed activities, 2) role of social interaction, 3) altered time perception and 4) disruption to motivation and associated psychological effects. Themes were organized into a provisional heuristic map, generating hypotheses for future research centered on the new concept of 'psychological drift.'

Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for people with bipolar disorders: A scoping review.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019)-related pandemic represents a global source of societal and health burden. Yet, the impact of the pandemic on people with severe mental illness, including bipolar disorder (BD), remains unclear, warranting scoping review on the matter. METHODS: The MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were systematically searched from inception up to April 24, 2021, adopting broad inclusion criteria to assess a variety of clinical and public health themes related to people with a primary diagnosis of BD during the COVID-19 pandemics. The present work complying with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) registered in the Open Science Framework (OSF) repository (https://osf.io/7evpx/). RESULTS: Fourteen papers informed the present scoping review. Four major themes were identified: (i) impact of COVID-19-related stressors on BD; (ii) impact of COVID-19 on mental health service utilization among people with BD; (iii) impact of BD on the risk of acquiring SARS-CoV-2 infection; (iv) engagement in preventative behaviors among people with BD. Additional themes warranting further research were nonetheless detected. LIMITATIONS: Further original studies are needed. CONCLUSION: The present study confirmed the high-vulnerability hypothesis concerning people with BD versus the general population, reinforcing the need for further research related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional information is warranted to compare the impact of the pandemic period among BD people against pre-pandemic records, the general population, and other severe mental illnesses, namely people with schizophrenia or major depressive disorder, to inform the public health and the delivery of patient-tailored interventions.

Psychological impact of Covid-19 pandemic on mental health among medical students in Malaysia

Introduction: The Coronavirus disease-2019 impacted the governments and public health systems worldwide, with the psychological impact including an increase in the level of stress, anxiety and depression. We determine the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21), and to determine the psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic amongst medical students in Sarawak, Malaysia using the revised Impact of Event Scale (IES-R). Methods: We analysed 355 medical student’s data obtained from an online survey. All the undergraduate medical students were the sample population. IBM SPSS version 22.0 was used for data analysis. A p-value of ≤.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Analysis indicated that three-fourths of the students had no mental health issues. More than one-tenth of the students were moderately depressed (12.4%) and 4.3% severely depressed. A similar pattern of prevalence of anxiety was noted with 10% reported moderate anxiety, and 6.8% had severe anxiety. 15.8% of the students had mild stress, 4.2% moderately stressed, and 2% severely stressed. A hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis showed that hyperarousal appeared to be a predictor of depression (β=.466, p<.001), anxiety (β=.481, p<.001) and stress β=.508, p<.001). Along with hyperarousal, intrusion (β=.148, p<.05) predicts stress among the students. Conclusion: Our analysis revealed that hyperarousal symptoms related to the global pandemic of COVID-19 led to significant mental health issues among students. Therefore, urgent strategies to support the students’ psychosocial wellbeing and self-care and to strengthen their coping skills and resilience need to be implemented. © 2021 UPM Press. All rights reserved.

Assessing socio-economic profile of U-Reporters: Towards establishing a pool for equity analysis of future crowdsourced surveys.

BACKGROUND: Crowdsourcing was recognized as having the potential to collect information rapidly, inexpensively and accurately. U-Report is a mobile empowerment platform that connects young people all over the world to information that will change their lives and influence decisions. Previous studies of U-Report's effectiveness highlight strengths in the timeliness, low cost and high credibility for collecting and sending information, however they also highlight areas to improve on concerning data representation. EquityTool has developed a simpler approach to assess the wealth quintiles of respondents based on fewer questions derived from large household surveys such as Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys (MICS) and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). METHODS: The methodology of Equity Tool was adopted to assess the socio-economic profile of U-Reporters (ie, enrolled participants of U-Report) in Bangladesh. The RapidPro flow collected the survey responses and scored them against the DHS national wealth index using the EquityTool methodology. This helped placing each U-Reporter who completed all questions into the appropriate wealth quintile. RESULTS: With 19% of the respondents completing all questions, the respondents fell into all 5 wealth quintiles, with 79% in the top-two quintiles and only 21% in the lower-three resulting in an Equity Index of 53/100 where 100 is completely in line with Bangladesh equity distribution and 1 is the least in line. An equitable random sample of 1828 U-Reporters from among the regular and frequent respondents was subsequently created for future surveys and the sample has an Equity Index of 98/100. CONCLUSIONS: U-Report in Bangladesh does reach the poorest quintiles while the initial recruitment skews to respondents towards better off families. It is possible to create an equitable random sub-sample of respondents from all five wealth quintiles and thus process information and data for future surveys. Moving forward, U-Reporters from the poorly represented quintiles may be incentivized to recruit peers to increase equity and representation. In times of COVID-19, U-Report in combination with the EquityTool has the potential to enhance the quality of crowdsourced data for statistical analysis.

Pituitary tumor resection in a patient with SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection. A case report and suggested airway management guidelines

The 2020 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, had its headquarters in China. It causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and presents a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations, ranging from entirely asymptomatic through severe acute respiratory failure and death. Presuming a significant quantity of ventilator-dependent patients, several institutions strategically delayed elective surgeries. Particularly procedures performed involving the nasal mucosa, such as a transsphenoidal approach of the pituitary gland, considering the tremendous level of viral shedding. Nevertheless, critical cases demand expeditious resolution. Those situations are severe pituitary apoplexy, declining consciousness level, or risk of acute visual loss. This case presents a successful urgent perioperative management of a 47 year-old male COVID-19 positive patient who presented to the Emergency Department with a left frontal headache that culminated with diplopia, left eye ptosis, and left visual acuity loss after 5 days. Transsphenoidal hypophysectomy was uneventfully performed, and the patient was discharged from the hospital on postoperative day four. It additionally describes in detail the University of Mississippi Medical Center airway management algorithm for patients infected with the novel coronavirus who need emergent surgical attention. Resumo A pandemia de 2020 causada pelo novo coronavírus, COVID-19, teve seu epicentro na China. Causa Síndrome Respiratória Aguda Grave pelo Coronavírus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) e apresenta um amplo espectro de manifestações clínicas, que vão desde nenhum sintoma a insuficiência respiratória aguda grave e óbito. Com a expectativa de um número significativo de pacientes dependentes de ventilador, várias instituições estrategicamente adiaram cirurgias eletivas. Esse é o caso principalmente de procedimentos envolvendo a mucosa nasal, como a via transesfenoidal para a hipófise, devido ao nível imenso de disseminação de material viral. Não obstante, casos críticos requerem resolução acelerada. Essas situações são grave apoplexia hipofisária, diminuição do nível de consciência ou risco de perda visual aguda. O presente caso relata o manejo perioperatório bem sucedido de urgência de paciente do sexo masculino de 47 anos de idade com COVID-19 que chegou ao Pronto Socorro com cefaleia frontal à esquerda que culminou com diplopia, ptose do olho esquerdo e perda de acuidade visual à esquerda após 5 dias. A hipofisectomia transesfenoidal ocorreu sem intercorrências e o paciente recebeu alta do hospital no quarto dia do pós-operatório. Adicionalmente, descrevemos em detalhe o algoritmo de manejo de via aérea da University of Mississippi Medical Center para pacientes infectados pelo novo coronavírus e que necessitam de atenção cirúrgica de emergência.

Procedures in COVID-19 Patients: Part-II.

Critical care in the era of novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) infection has multiple challenges including management of the patient, underlying comorbidities, and the complications. With no end in sight to the pandemic, intensive care unit (ICU) practitioners and hospital administrators have to join hands to prepare for the long battle ahead. Critically ill COVID-19 patients need imaging or image-guided interventions in one form or the other including X-rays, ultrasonography (USG), echocardiography (ECHO), and CT scan. These patients often require renal replacement therapy (RRT) for either the preexisting chronic renal insufficiency or acutely developing kidney injury. Another important component of care is transfer of the patient to and fro from the ICU or to higher care centers. Most of the ICUs are equipped with modern facilities but with increasing number of patients a large number of makeshift arrangements are being made for managing these patients. This position paper outlines important tips to formulate protocols and procedures for critically ill patients, who are managed in the ICU. How to cite this article: Pande RK, Bhalla A, Myatra SN, Yaddanpuddi LN, Gupta S, Sahoo TK, et al. Procedures in COVID-19 Patients: Part-II. Indian J Crit Care Med 2020;24(Suppl 5):S272-S279.

Procedures in COVID-19 Patients: Part-I.

The number of cases with novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) infection is increasing every day in the world, and India contributes a substantial proportion of this burden. Critical care specialists have accepted the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and are frontline warriors in this war. They have worked hard in streamlining workflow isolation of positive patients, clinical management of critically ill patients, and infection prevention practices. With no end in sight for this pandemic, intensive care unit (ICU) practitioners, hospital administrators, and policy makers have to join hands to prepare for the surge in critical care bed capacity. In this position article, we offer several suggestions on important interventions to the ICU practitioners for better management of critically ill patients. This position article highlights key interventions for COVID-19 treatment and covers several important issues such as endotracheal intubation and tracheostomy (surgical vs PCT), nebulization, bronchoscopy, and invasive procedures such as central venous catheters, arterial lines, and HD catheters. How to cite this article: Pande RK, Bhalla A, SN Myatra, Yaddanpuddi LN, Gupta S, Sahoo TK, et al. Procedures in COVID-19 Patients: Part-I. Indian J Crit Care Med 2020;24(Suppl 5):S263-S271.

Barrier Protection during Airway Intubation.

How to cite this article: Sehgal IS, Yaddanapudi LN, Dhooria S, Thurai Prasad K, Puri GD, Muthu V, et al. Barrier Protection during Airway Intubation. Indian J Crit Care Med 2020;24(6):485-486.

[Pituitary tumor resection in a patient with SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection. A case report and suggested airway management guidelines]. / Assistência perioperatória de paciente com infecção pelo SARS­CoV­2 (COVID­19) submetido a ressecção de tumor de hipófise urgente. Relato de caso e diretrizes para manejo de via aérea.

The 2020 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, had its headquarters in China. It causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and presents a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations, ranging from entirely asymptomatic through severe acute respiratory failure and death. Presuming a significant quantity of ventilator-dependent patients, several institutions strategically delayed elective surgeries. Particularly procedures performed involving the nasal mucosa, such as a transsphenoidal approach of the pituitary gland, considering the tremendous level of viral shedding. Nevertheless, critical cases demand expeditious resolution. Those situations are severe pituitary apoplexy, declining consciousness level, or risk of acute visual loss. This case presents a successful urgent perioperative management of a 47 year-old male COVID-19 positive patient who presented to the Emergency Department with a left frontal headache that culminated with diplopia, left eye ptosis, and left visual acuity loss after 5 days. Transsphenoidal hypophysectomy was uneventfully performed, and the patient was discharged from the hospital on postoperative day four. It additionally describes in detail the University of Mississippi Medical Center airway management algorithm for patients infected with the novel coronavirus who need emergent surgical attention.

Group Testing for COVID-19: How to Stop Worrying and Test More (preprint)

The corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the novel corona virus has an exponential rate of infection. COVID-19 is particularly notorious as the onset of symptoms in infected patients are usually delayed and there exists a large number of asymptomatic carriers. In order to prevent overwhelming of medical facilities and large fatality rate, early stage testing and diagnosis are key requirements. In this article, we discuss the methodologies from the group testing literature and its relevance to COVID-19 diagnosis. Specifically, we investigate the efficiency of group testing using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for COVID-19. Group testing is a method in which multiple samples are pooled together in groups and fewer tests are performed on these groups to discern all the infected samples. We study the effect of dilution due to pooling in group testing and show that group tests can perform well even in the presence of dilution effects. We present multiple group testing algorithms that could reduce the number of tests performed for COVID-19 diagnosis. We analyze the efficiency of these tests and provide insights on their practical relevance. With the use of algorithms described here, test plans can be developed that can enable testing centers to increase the number of diagnosis performed without increasing the number of PCR tests. The codes for generating test plans are available online at [1].