Omicron: ICMR develops 2-hour test to detect new coronavirus variant

The Indian Council of Medical Research in Dibrugarh, Assam has designed a Covid-19 testing kit, which is capable of detecting new coronavirus variant Omicron in just two hours. A team led by scientist Biswajyoti Borkakoty, has developed this new Covid-19 testing kit. The scientists’ team claims to detect the Omicron variant in 2 hours, news agency ANI reported.

A Kolkata-based company GCC Biotech will produce the testing kit in bulk now under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.

With the current testing kits available in the market it takes around three to four days to detect the Omicron Covid-19 variant.

"The kit has been tested against specific synthetic gene fragments of Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 within two different highly specific unique regions of the spike protein. Internal validation has shown that the tests are 100 per cent accurate." Dr. Borkakoty was quoted as saying.

The new development comes amid rising cases of Omicron variant across states in India. The country has reported 33 cases of Omicron so far.

Omicron is a new variant of Covid-19 that was first detected by scientists in South Africa.

Also Watch: WHO's warning on Omicron: 'May change pandemic course without action'