New ICMR testing kit to detect Omicron in 2 hours

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in Dibrugarh, Assam has designed a new testing kit that will be able to detect Omicron COVID variant in two hours. The development comes at a time when several states across the country are reporting the Omicron variant. At least 33 cases have been detected in the country so far.

Till now, it used to take at least 3-4 days to detect the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 using the kits currently available in the market. The authorities have been working towards detecting the cases quickly in order to speedily enforce containment measures and do contact tracing.

The latest kit that can detect Omicron in just 2 hours has been developed by a team of scientists of Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) for the Northeast region. The testing kit will enable detection of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in real-time.

Who has developed the kit that can detect Omicron in 2 hours?

-A team of scientists led by Dr. Biswajyoti Borkakoty has developed the new testing kit with the ability to detect the Omicron in 2 hours from a given sample. 

-The ICMR-RMRC in Dibrugarh has developed a hydrolysis probe-based real-time RT-PCR test for detection of Omicron variant (B.1.1.529). 

-The new testing kit is now being produced on a bulk basis by a Kolkata-based company, GCC biotech on a public-private partnership (PPP) model.

Significance

This is significant as currently, a minimum of at least 36 hours are needed for targetted sequencing and 4-5 days for whole-genome sequencing to detect the new variant.

Is the new kit accurate?

The new testing kit has been tested against specific synthetic gene fragments of Omicron variant within two different highly specific unique regions of the spike protein and reference wild type control synthetic gene fragments, informed the study lead, Dr. Borkakoty. He added saying that as per internal validation, the tests are 100 percent accurate.

Background 

ICMR-RMRC Dibrugarh had in July 2020 become the third government laboratory in India to successfully manage to isolate the COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2). So far, the new Omicron COVID variant has been detected in states including Karnataka, Delhi, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat.