FDA says antigen tests may be less sensitive to omicron

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday warned that antigen tests may be less effective in detecting the highly contagious omicron variant of COVID-19.

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday warned that antigen tests may be less effective in detecting the highly contagious omicron variant of COVID-19.

FDA says antigen tests may be less sensitive to omicron© getty FDA says antigen tests may be less sensitive to omicron

The FDA's announcement was based on a collaboration with the National Institutes of Health's Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics program, which studied antigen tests' performance for samples that had the omicron variant.

Earlier this month, President Biden announced that his administration would purchase 500 million rapid COVID-19 tests to distribute for free to any American who wants one.

"Seeing how tough it was for some folks to get a test this weekend shows that we have more work to do. We're doing it," Biden said Monday.

Demand for tests has soared with the holiday season and the onset of omicron, making it harder to get tests.

(AP)