Are Rapid Tests Worse at Detecting Omicron—and Does It Matter?

Anecdotal reports and results from small studies on the diagnostics’ accuracy have prompted questions about the devices’ usage with the new variant, but researchers say more data are needed and emphasize the continued importance of SARS-CoV-2 testing.

Written byCatherine Offord

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Update (March 2): A US study of multiple brands of rapid antigen tests has concluded that there is no dip in performance for the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 compared to Delta. The findings, which were published in a preprint earlier this week, add “to the body of evidence that says that Omicron can be detected with the home tests that we have,” study coauthor Nathaniel Hafer of UMass Chan Medical School tells The New York Times.

A short seven weeks after the World Health Organization declared Omicron a SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern, this new form of the virus has driven exponential surges in case numbers around the world. Spreading at its current rate, the variant will have infected more than half the population of Europe and Central Asia within the next six to eight weeks, the WHO predicted on Tuesday (January 11); according to the Centers for Disease Control and ...

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Meet the Author

Catherine Offord
After undergraduate research with spiders at the University of Oxford and graduate research with ants at Princeton University, Catherine left arthropods and academia to become a science journalist. She has worked in various guises at The Scientist since 2016. As Senior Editor, she wrote articles for the online and print publications, and edited the magazine’s Notebook, Careers, and Bio Business sections. She reports on subjects ranging from cellular and molecular biology to research misconduct and science policy. Find more of her work at her website.
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