SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern surveillance including Omicron using RT-PCR-based genotyping offers comparable performance to whole genome sequencing

Abstract

Known SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) can be detected and differentiated using an RT-PCR-based genotyping approach, which offers quicker time to result, lower cost, higher flexibility, and use of the same laboratory instrumentation for detection of SARS-CoV-2 when compared with whole genome sequencing (WGS). In the current study, we demonstrate how we applied a genotyping approach for identification of all VOCs and that such technique can offer comparable performance to WGS for identification of known SARS-CoV-2 VOCs, including more recent strains, Omicron BA.1 and BA.2.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; alpha; delta; mutation panel; omicron; variants of concern; whole genome sequencing.