Another mutation, N501Y, appears to increase the ability of the virus to gain entry to our cells, making it more transmissible. “These include E484A, K417N and N440K, which are associated with helping the virus to escape detection from antibodies.
“B.1.1529 has 32 mutations located in its spike protein,” explains Balasubramaniam. Vinod Balasubramaniam, a virologist from Monash University in Malaysia, says the mutations seen in Omicron are all in regions we have previously linked to increased transmissibility and immune escape. The biggest red flag surrounding Omicron is the sheer number of mutations this variant has accumulated.
#WHERE IS IT FROM PROFESSIONAL#
“Two letters were skipped – Nu and Xi – because Nu is too easily confounded with “new” and Xi was not used because it is a common surname and WHO best practices for naming new diseases (developed in conjunction with FAO and OIE back in 2015) suggest avoiding “causing offense to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups,” the WHO said in a recent statement. A statement from the WHO indicates it has decided to skip Nu and Xi, the 13th and 14th letters of the Greek alphabet, bringing us up to Omicron as the latest variant label. Omicron is the thirteenth SARS-CoV-2 variant to receive a formal WHO designation but it has been tagged with the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet. The most recent variant to be offered this kind of label was Mu in late August. The labels are designated by the TAG-VE, an independent advisory panel that evaluates whether a variant is of global public health significance. It was then formally issued the label "Omicron."Įarly on in the pandemic the WHO acknowledged the need for a simple way to communicate emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants so it was decided new variants would be named after letters of the Greek alphabet. It was formally reported to the World Health Organization on November 24 and two days later the WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) officially designated B.1.1.529 a "Variant of Concern" (VOC), the highest alert category for an emerging coronavirus variant. Scientists in South Africa rapidly tracked the emerging variant to a number of local provinces. Genomic analysis quickly revealed this specimen to be a novel variant, initially dubbed B.1.1.529.
On November 9, a specimen of SARS-CoV-2 was taken from an infected patient in Botswana.