Quicker lab tests for new strain will be rolled out across NHS

A specialist test which identifies Omicron in a matter of hours will be rolled out to NHS labs in the coming weeks to help identify cases quickly, Public Health Scotland (PHS) has confirmed.

Not every lab in Scotland has the ability to rapidly identify Omicron without sending samples on for genome sequencing, which can take days.

Biomedical scientist Allan Wilson, who is president of the Institute of Biomedical Science, said: “If they’re

sequenced we will find them but what we can’t rule out is the possibility of positive Omicron cases that never went to sequencing.”

PHS said the majority of cases in the community are identified through the Glasgow Lighthouse Laboratory which can identify the s-gene drop out associated with the Omicron variant. “Not all NHS laboratories use the same test, but all samples from positive Covid cases identified in a clinical setting are sent for whole genome sequencing,” PHS added.

“In the next two weeks, it is planned that tests will be rolled out that can detect a mutation only found in the Omicron gene. The advantage of these tests over genome sequencing is that the test, whilst not definitive, provides a high probability of an Omicron and only takes hours.”

Scotland has recorded 14 coronavirus-linked deaths and 1,257 new cases in the past 24 hours. However, the number of cases could rise due to a processing issues. There are 605 people in hospital with recently confirmed Covid and, of these, 50 are in intensive care.

So far, 4,351,214 people have received their first dose of a Covid vaccination, 3,956,719 have had a second, and 1,823,515 have been given a third dose or booster.

Yesterday, the UK government released figures showing almost 20 million booster jags have now been given.