Thermo Fisher says its COVID-19 tests accurately detect Omicron variant

A social distancing sign is seen amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Leicester, Britain, May 27, 2021. REUTERS FILE PHOTO

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc said
on Monday its COVID-19 diagnostic tests can accurately detect
the new coronavirus variant Omicron that has made several
countries to shut their borders.

The World Health Organization (WHO) last week classified the
Omicron variant as a SARS-CoV-2 “variant of concern,” saying it
may spread more quickly than other forms.

Thermo Fisher’s TaqPath COVID-19 assays can report accurate
results even in the case where one of the gene targets is
impacted by a mutation, the company said in a statement.
“This assay can be used not only to successfully detect
COVID-19 but… it also be used as a proxy for the
variant,” Mark Stevenson, chief operating officer at Thermo
Fisher Scientific, said in an interview.

Stevenson said this is the only COVID-19 diagnostic test
authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and
currently in use by health systems that can be used to indicate
if a case is caused by the Omicron variant.

Test samples must still be sent to a lab for sequencing to
confirm that the case was caused by Omicron and not another
variant with similar features, such as the Alpha variant, he
said.

Omicron, which was first detected in Southern Africa, has
now been confirmed in Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Britain,
Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands,
France, South Africa, and the United States’ neighbor to the
north, Canada.

The WHO said it was working with technical experts to
understand the potential impact of the variant on existing
countermeasures against COVID-19, including vaccines.