Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Omicron (B.1.1.529) is a variant of SARS-CoV-2 first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa on 24 November 2021. [ 10][ 11] It was first detected in Botswana and has spread to become the predominant variant in circulation around the world. [ 12]
The Omicron variant features as such for the first time in the overview of WHO's weekly operational update, namely "Supporting Omicron variant detection and COVID-19 response in southern Africa." As of 2 December, Botswana and South Africa have reported 19 and 172 Omicron variant cases, respectively, accounting for 62% of global cases.
Variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ( SARS-CoV-2) are viruses that, while similar to the original, have genetic changes that are of enough significance to lead virologists to label them separately. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Omicron constitutes the current strain of COVID-19 in circulation. “Omicron is very contagious. That was how it out-competed the Delta variant,” Dr. Yancey says.
The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has now been reported in at least 19 countries around the world, including the 77 cases found in South Africa and 19 cases in Botswana.. Scientists and other ...
But Pfizer's and Moderna’s new bivalent boosters target both the original strain and the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants, which the FDA says are responsible for most cases in the U.S. and are ...
The original omicron strain, known as BA.1, featured around 50 genetic mutations that separated it from the original strain of the coronavirus. ... The BA.2 subtype accounted for 20 percent of ...
Story at a glance The number of coronavirus cases, especially of newer omicron variants, are still relatively high in the U.S. The new bivalent version of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines ...