Experts warn rapid antigen tests have "reduced sensitivity" for detecting Omicron

The US Food and Drug Administration is warning that rapid antigen tests may not always detect when a person is positive for the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

On Tuesday, the FDA released new information suggesting that antigen tests do detect the Omicron variant but they may have reduced sensitivity.

BREAKING—The FDA just announced that rapid antigen tests are less sensitive for detecting #Omicron variant infections. This could mean we are missing a lot more #COVID19. I know many families with everyone having symptoms but many not positive. Oy. https://t.co/3q06hgp0de pic.twitter.com/mPgg3Fm5ZP

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 28, 2021

The FDA says it is “collaborating with the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) RADx program to study the performance of antigen tests with patient samples that have the omicron variant. RADx recently performed preliminary studies evaluating the performance of some antigen tests using patient samples containing live virus, which represents the best way to evaluate true test performance in the short-term.”

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While these tests may have reduced sensitivity, people are still being encouraged to use them as directed.

3) We need to think of rapid tests as like “leaf rakes” — they don’t capture all leaves 🍁 but if you rake your lawn once, you will capture most 🍁, and if you take it twice, you will get most 🍂 (cases). The solution is not zero tests— the solution is more/better tests approved. https://t.co/i508YsJiW1

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 28, 2021

The FDA goes on to say “if a person tests negative with an antigen test but is suspected of having COVID-19, such as experiencing symptoms or have a high likelihood of infection due to exposure, follow-up molecular testing is important for determining a COVID-19 infection.”

On Monday, the US CDC issued new guidance recommending people who have tested positive for COVID-19 only isolate for five days if they are not showing symptoms.