OMICRON- A NEW VARIANT OF COVID-19

Why in news?

Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, currently circulating in South Africa, as a ‘variant of concern’. It also named it Omicron.

About Omicron variant of Covid-19

Identified by:

• The Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA) had identified the variant recently.
• It had detected a group of related SARS-CoV-2 viruses, which belong to a lineage named B.1.1.529.
• Early indications are that this variant is possibly even more transmissible than the highly infectious Delta variant, and that current vaccines may be less effective against it.

What we do know so far about Omicron?

• 1.1.529 has multiple spike protein mutations, and preliminary analysis suggests it is highly infectious.
• South Africa has reported a four-fold increase in new cases over the last two weeks, coinciding with the emergence of B.1.1.529.

What are the mutations that characterise this variant?

• On the mutation profile of the new variant, the NGS-SA has said that B.1.1.529 has “very unusual constellations of mutations” — with 30 in the region that encodes the spike protein, which is responsible for the virus’s entry in human cells.
• It has said that some of the mutations are well characterised with a known phenotypic impact, affecting transmissibility and immune evasion. Some of these mutations have already been detected in the Alpha and Delta variants.
• But many other mutations, the NGS-SA said, have been “rarely observed until now and not well characterised”.
• So, the full significance of these mutations remain uncertain at this point.
• “More investigations are underway to determine the possible impact of these mutations on the capacity of the virus to transmit more efficiently, to impact vaccine effectiveness and evade immune response, and/or to cause more severe or milder disease,” the Africa Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has said.