Can the currently used diagnostics methods, detect Omicron?

The most accepted and commonly used method of diagnostic for SARS-CoV- 2 Variant is RT-PCR method. This method detects specific genes in the virus, such as Spike (S), Enveloped (E) and Nucleocapsid (N) etc to confirm the presence of virus. However, in case of Omicron, as the S gene is heavily mutated, some of the primers may lead to results indicating absence of the S gene (called as S gene drop out). This particular S gene drop out along with the detection of other viral genes could be used a diagnostic feature of Omicron.

However, for final confirmation of the omicron variant genomic sequencing is required.

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