Assam Researchers Develop Covid-19 Test Kit To Detect Omicron In 2 Hours

 In what may be a relief to international travellers having to wait long hours at the airport for getting tested for the Covid-19, a team of researchers in Assam have come up with a testing kit that can detect Omicron in just two hours. The Regional Medical Research Centre in Dibrugarh Assam, a part of the Indian Council of Medical Research, has developed the new kit.

The RMRC-ICMR Assam team, led by senior scientist Dr Biswajyoti Borkakoty, had been working on developing the testing kit since November 24, days after the first cases of Omicron were first discovered and reported by scientists in South Africa. According to reports, the kit has shown positive results.

According to Dr Borkakoty, the testing kit is a "hydrolysis probe-based real-time RT-PCR assay" that can detect Omicron, the new variant of Covid-19, in just a matter of two hours. The kit has also 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 and also reference wild type control synthetic gene fragments", NDTV reported.

With the World Health Organisation naming Omicron as a 'variant of concern', several countries including India tightened travel restrictions for foreign travellers with mandatory testing for those arriving from affected or 'at risk' countries. However, the long wait period after Covid-19 testing at airports with passengers waiting for the RT-PCR or Rapid Antigen test results caused a surge in crowds at international airports, especially in Delhi and Mumbai.

Visuals of chaos and confusion as at the arrival area in Delhi airport went viral on social media, causing concern for the further spread of Covid-19.