Evaluation of the ID NOW Among Symptomatic Individuals During the Omicron Wave

BACKGROUNDPoint of Care SARS-CoV-2 devices, such as the Abbott ID NOW have great potential, to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting in December, 2020, the ID NOW was implemented throughout the province of Alberta, Canada (population 4.4 million) in various settings. We aimed to assess the ID NOW performance during the BA.1 Omicron wave and compare it to previous waves.METHODSThe ID NOW was assessed in two distinct locations among symptomatic individuals: acute care (emergency room, urgent care, and hospitalized patients) and community assessment centres (AC) during the period January 5 – 18, 2022. Starting January 5, Omicron represented >95% of variants detected in our population. For every individual tested, two swabs were collected: one for ID NOW testing and the other for either reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) confirmation of negative ID NOW results or for variant testing of positive ID NOW results.RESULTSA total of 3,041 paired samples were analyzed (1,139 RT-PCR positive). 1,873 samples were from 42 COVID-19 AC and 1,168 from 69 rural hospitals. ID NOW sensitivity for symptomatic individuals presenting to community AC and patients in hospital was 96.0% [95% confidence interval (CI) 94.5-97.3%, n=830 RT-PCR positive], and 91.6% (95% CI 87.9-94.4%, n=309 RT-PCR positive), respectively. SARS-CoV 2 positivity rate was very high for both populations (44.3% at AC, 26.5% in hospital).CONCLUSIONSSensitivity of ID NOW SARS-CoV-2, compared to RT-PCR, is very high during the BA.1 Omicron wave, and is significantly higher when compared to previous SARS-CoV-2 variant waves.