Testing for active SARS-CoV-2 infection is a fundamental tool in public health measures taken to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the overwhelming use of SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR tests worldwide, availability of test kits has become a major bottleneck. Here we demonstrate the reliability and efficiency of two simple pooling strategies that can increase testing capacity about 5-fold to 7.5-fold, in populations with a low infection rate. We have implemented the method in a routine clinical diagnosis setting, and already tested 2,168 individuals for SARS-CoV-2 using 311 RNA extraction and RT-PCR kits.