Some Covid-19 Rapid Tests Can Detect Omicron Variant, Fauci Says

Covid-19 rapid tests such as Abbott’s BinaxNOW should be able to pick up the omicron variant, potentially lending a critical tool to curbing the spread of the new strain.

Anthony S. Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser for Covid-19, said Monday that his South African colleagues told him “at least some of the rapid antigen tests” could detect the variant first discovered by South African scientists last week.

“He couldn’t guarantee that all of them would, but the ones that they were using—he didn’t specifically say what they were—is that the mutations did not interfere with the ability to ...