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UK Variant Of Coronavirus May Be Harder To Diagnose With Many Current Tests: FDA

The agency is cautioning that current tests may give false negative results for patients with genetic mutations of SARS-CoV-2, making it harder to control the spread of the pandemic.

Illustration of a coronavirus cell mutating.

The US Food and Drug Administration alerted clinical laboratories and health care providers that mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including the B.1.1.7 variant, may result in false negative readings on molecular diagnostic tests for COVID-19 .

The B.1.1.7 variant was discovered first in the UK back in October and is far more contagious than previous variants of the virus. Since the pandemic began, the FDA has...

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