The Food and Drug Administration said it believes rapid antigen tests may be more likely to produce false negatives against omicron than other variants of COVID-19.

The FDA authorizes the use of antigen tests to identify COVID-19 but recommends individuals with symptoms take a molecular test.

Members of the White House COVID-19 response team said the antigen tests remain important for use in detecting the virus.

CDC DROPS OMICRON ESTIMATES DOWN TO 58% OF ALL COVID-19 INFECTIONS

"Everyone knows from the beginning that it is not by the nature of the technical aspect of the test, as sensitive as a PCR," Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a White House briefing Wednesday. "But it has a considerable degree of usefulness in a number of different circumstances."

Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said antigen tests are important for serial testing in places such as schools. She suggested serial testing can help offset concerns about false negatives.

Jeff Zients, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, stressed that the FDA still recommends the tests but was just being transparent with the public.

An antigen test looks for pieces of protein from the virus and generally requires a large amount of the virus present to be positive, according to experts at Yale Medicine. The CDC also advises the sensitivity among antigen tests varies but is generally lower than most PCR tests.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

One study published in early December that looked at the BinaxNOW Rapid Antigen COVID-19 Test concluded the tests had an average sensitivity of 81% compared to PCR tests. The study looked at over 6,000 adults and did not reference omicron.

The United States recently hit a daily record number of 512,553 positive COVID-19 cases on Dec. 27, according to Johns Hopkins University. The case surge comes as omicron has become the dominant variant and some parts of the country are experiencing shortages of testing.