These are hardly the only machines that can run rtPCR though; they're just highly automated. eg biorad makes and sells tons of (much simpler), typically 96-wel

These are hardly the only machines that can run rtPCR though; they're just highly automated. eg biorad makes and sells tons of (much simpler), typically 96-well rtPCR machines. You can find them on ebay for like $5k. Training people to use them is not particularly hard, and you can probably do 4-8 runs / day on one of them. NB: 96 will means you probably can process 88-92 samples per run plus 4-8 controls. The limiting factor is approved tests and reagents, laboratory bench time to prep samples, and a distribution mechanism to get test kits to to people and then to labs.