i heard about this yesterday at 3:00 p.m. and we were able to receive a sample in the laboratory by 8:00 p.m. we ran a very fast molecular test which looks for what we call spike and jean drop out. what this test can tell you is that it can tell you you may have detected omicron, but it s not inclusive. we were able to get the results within two hours showing that potentially the sample was an omicron variant sample. to confirm the finding, we needed to sequence the genome. the genome of this virus and to do so, we used a pocket-sized sy oxford. john: you ve been asking how they know it s omicron question work there is a lengthy description of the methodology they used outside of san francisco