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 ...
