1. Impaired detection of omicron by SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen tests
- Author
-
Andreas Osterman, Irina Badell, Elif Basara, Marcel Stern, Fabian Kriesel, Marwa Eletreby, Gamze Naz Öztan, Melanie Huber, Hanna Autenrieth, Ricarda Knabe, Patricia M. Späth, Maximilian Muenchhoff, Alexander Graf, Stefan Krebs, Helmut Blum, Jürgen Durner, Ludwig Czibere, Christopher Dächert, Lars Kaderali, Hanna-Mari Baldauf, and Oliver T. Keppler
- Subjects
Microbiology (medical) ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Immunology ,Immunology and Allergy ,COVID-19 ,Humans ,General Medicine ,Pandemics - Abstract
Since autumn 2020, rapid antigen tests (RATs) have been implemented in several countries as an important pillar of the national testing strategy to rapidly screen for infections on site during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The current surge in infection rates around the globe is driven by the variant of concern (VoC) omicron (B.1.1.529). Here, we evaluated the performance of nine SARS-CoV-2 RATs in a single-centre laboratory study. We examined a total of 115 SARS-CoV-2 PCR-negative and 166 SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive respiratory swab samples (101 omicron, 65 delta (B.1.617.2)) collected from October 2021 until January 2022 as well as cell culture-expanded clinical isolates of both VoCs. In an assessment of the analytical sensitivity in clinical specimen, the 50% limit of detection (LoD50) ranged from 1.77 × 106 to 7.03 × 107 RNA copies subjected to the RAT for omicron compared to 1.32 × 105 to 2.05 × 106 for delta. To score positive in these point-of-care tests, up to 10-fold (LoD50) or 101-fold (LoD95) higher virus loads were required for omicron- compared to delta-containing samples. The rates of true positive test results for omicron samples in the highest virus load category (Ct values
- Published
- 2022