Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jan 28;9(3):ofac022.
doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofac022. eCollection 2022 Mar.

Detection of the Omicron Variant Virus With the Abbott BinaxNow SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Assay

James Regan  1 , James P Flynn  1 , Manish C Choudhary  1   2 , Rockib Uddin  3 , Jacob Lemieux  2   3 , Julie Boucau  4 , Roby P Bhattacharyya  2   3   5 , Amy K Barczak  2   3   4 , Jonathan Z Li  1   2 , Mark J Siedner  2   3
Affiliations

Detection of the Omicron Variant Virus With the Abbott BinaxNow SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Assay

James Regan et al. Open Forum Infect Dis. .

Abstract

We assessed the ability of the BinaxNow rapid test to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 antigen from 4 individuals with Omicron and Delta infections. We performed serial dilutions of nasal swab samples, and specimens with concentrations of ≥100 000 copies/swab were positive, demonstrating that the BinaxNow test is able to detect the Omicron variant.

Keywords: BinaxNow; SARS-CoV-2; diagnostic test; rapid antigen; viral load.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Results of a laboratory-based analytic validation of the BinaxNow SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen assay across a range of concentrations with both Delta and Omicron variant viruses. For the discordant result, 2 reviewers reported a negative result and 1 reported a positive result. aDiscordant results indicate those in which there was not agreement between the 3 blinded readers of each test. Abbreviation: SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Interim guidance for antigen testing for SARS-CoV-2. 2020. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/resources/antigen-tests-gu....
    1. Prince-Guerra JL, Almendares O, Nolen LD, et al. Evaluation of Abbott BinaxNOW rapid antigen test for SARS-CoV-2 infection at two community-based testing sites — Pima County, Arizona, November 3–17, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021; 70:100–5. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Okoye NC, Barker AP, Curtis K, et al. Performance characteristics of BinaxNOW COVID-19 antigen card for screening asymptomatic individuals in a university setting. J Clin Microbiol 2021; 59:e03282-20. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Almendares O, Prince-Guerra JL, Nolen LD, et al. Performance characteristics of the Abbott BinaxNOW SARS-CoV-2 antigen test in comparison to real-time RT-PCR and viral culture in community testing sites during November 2020. J Clin Microbiol 2022; 60:e0174221. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tinker SC, Szablewski CM, Litvintseva AP, et al. Point-of-care antigen test for SARS-CoV-2 in asymptomatic college students. Emerg Infect Dis 2021; 27:2662–5. - PMC - PubMed