First detected on November 23 in South Africa, the Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2 is of serious concern to scientists around the world. But we must continue to analyze it to establish its real dangerousness.
The exponential growth in the number of people infected in South Africa with the B.1.1.529 variant of Sars-CoV-2, known as Omicron, raises fears of the worst. But many questions about its dangerousness remain unanswered to this day, reports the New Scientist.
The reproduction rate of the virus (R), that is, the number of people a patient can infect, is almost 2 in Gauteng province – where nearly 80% of reported cases were found in South Africa November 27. However, as soon as R exceeds 1, an epidemic grows exponentially, recalls The Guardian.
An unprecedented constellation of mutations
The variant presents “A very unusual constellation of mutations”, notes Sharon Peacock, microbiologist at Cambridge University, cited by the New Scientist, which specifies: “There are over thirty mutations in the Spike protein, the part of the virus that interacts with human cells.”But other mutations could also help the virus to “Bypass the immune system, make it more transmissible and more resistant to treatment”, according to the health and safety agency
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