In the ARD broadcast “Report from Berlin”, Lauterbach said on Sunday evening: “We do not know exactly how well these tests work for Omikron.” However, it has not yet been possible to check this because there have been no reference values. “So we didn’t know exactly: How much viral load must there be for someone infected with Omikron to be contagious to others at all? We are getting this data right now.“There is a certain probability,“ it is very high ”, that existing tests will also prove Omikron. “We know that from the literature, from the studies.” But he wanted to know exactly how high the accuracy was.
The Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) had already given an initial assessment – Accordingly, most of the corona rapid tests offered in Germany are also suitable for detecting the new Omikron variant. This can be assumed “on the basis of the current data situation,” writes the PEI on its website. By mid-December, a total of 245 different so-called antigen tests had passed a general test procedure by a PEI laboratory, 199 had passed the test. Of these 199, the vast majority could in turn detect an omicron infection. The reason: The vast majority of the tests offered in Germany suggest a protein of the virus that is comparatively little affected by the omicron mutations.