The Department of Health today said it has temporarily removed Medtimes Molecular Laboratory from the list of recognised testing institutions for COVID-19 testing in view of the testing property of the Omicron mutant strain.

According to information from the World Health Organization, the Omicron mutant strain possesses multiple spike protein gene mutations, and the spike protein gene targets may not be detected if the testing institution uses a particular and single polymerase chain reaction-based nucleic acid testing kit.

Follow-up investigations by the department revealed that the possibility of a discrepancy could not be ruled out when conducting tests against the Omicron strain using “The Linea COVID-19 v1.0 kit”, a commercial testing kit which detects two targets at the spike protein gene. This may lead to “false negative” results.

Taking into consideration this testing kit has been the only one used by Medtimes Molecular Laboratory, the department has temporarily removed the company from the list of recognised testing institutions.

It has also advised Medtimes to acquire other testing kits to replace the current one to accurately test against the Omicron strain that may exist.

Medtimes is contacting clients who have used its testing services in the past two weeks to arrange re-tests at another recognised testing institution. A hotline 3575 9766 has been set up for related enquiries.

The department emphasised that Medtimes has not provided testing services for the airport temporary specimen collection centre, the quarantine centre or designated quarantine hotels. Its clients are mainly organisations or members of the public in the local setting.

As no Omicron case is detected in the local community so far and the relevant testing kit will not affect the ability of detecting other mutant strains, the impact of such findings on Hong Kong’s overall testing ability will be minimal, it added.