The Indian Council of Medical Research has designed a testing kit that can detect the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) of the coronavirus in just two hours, local media reported on Sunday. The testing kit was developed by a team of scientists of the regional medical research centre for the northeast region. "This is important because as of now a minimum of 36 hours is required for targeted sequencing and four to five days for whole-genome sequencing to detect the variant," lead scientist Dr. Biswajyoti Borkakoty was quoted as saying. Internal validation has shown that the tests are "100 percent accurate," he added. The kit has been developed at a time when several states across the country have reported Omicron cases. On Sunday, India reported three more cases of the Omicron variant, taking the country"s case tally of the new variant to 36. The three cases were reported in Chandigarh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. — Agencies