The Union Health Ministry has advised states to implement a strategy of dual RT-PCR testing before genome sequencing of positive samples for detection of cases with the Omicron variant. 

According to the new strategy, throat or nasal swab samples of suspected patients will be tested using a standard RT-PCR kit and if they return a positive result, the same samples will be subjected to a second test using an imported RT-PCR kit having an S-gene drop.

The samples which show positive result for S-gene dropout or S-gene target failure (SGTF) will undergo genome sequencing for the detection of Omicron. A senior official of the health ministry said that while it will cut costs, the strategy will help identify the highly probable Omicron cases and save resources.

Maharashtra is among the first states to have already started implementing the new approach. Several districts with high floating populations have been provided the imported kits… (ET Healthworld – TNN, December 28, 2021)