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"It is quite difficult to detect Omicron by tests - Tengiz Tsertsvadze

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COVID-19

The head of the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Tengiz Tsertsvadze, spoke on Palitranews about the new variant of the Omicron coronavirus and noted that existing tests hardly detect the Omicron strain.

According to Tengiz Tsertsvadze, testing should be carried out the day after the onset of symptoms.

“People need to know that none of the tests in the world is 100%. But the existing tests are even less susceptible to the omicron than to the delta strain, especially for rapid tests, and especially on the first day, when the concentration of the virus in the body is low. It is possible that a quick test may not detect the virus.

In the case of a PCR test, the probability of error is much lower. Therefore, patients are advised to be tested on the second day after the onset of symptoms rather than on the first day. However, there are a number of patients who do not test positive on the second or third day, but have signs of Covid.

That is why we advise such patients to behave like covid patients, and I also advise doctors to treat them as if they were infected with coronavirus. They must stay at home if they have symptoms, be in isolation for 8 days,” - said Tengiz Tsertsvadze.