3 highlights
-
Omicron was first identified in Botswana and reported to WHO from South Africa.
-
Current SARS-CoV-2 PCR diagnostics are able to detect the variant despite its numerous mutations. However, one of the target genes is not detected because of something called an S gene drop-out in this variant. Actually, that dropout can be used as a diagnostic feature of the variant.
-
Delta (which was identified in India) is still the variant that caused the most damage globally because it was highly transmissible compared to all other variants, even if it did not evade immune responses to the same extent as the Beta variant (which was also identified in South Africa).