Medicina pulmonar y respiratoria

Prevalence, Effectiveness of Vaccination and Genomics of Omicron-A New Variant of SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

Ramadevi Bhogireddy, Dinesh Annamalai, Swetha Manohar, Chitikela P Pullaiah, Venkataraman Krishnamurthy and S. Sugin Lal Jabaris*

Omicron is a new variant of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and globally it created a challenging and hostile situation. it is highly contagious and has spread to more than 150 countries. Omicron variant has critical mutations in the spike protein than other Variants of Concern (VoC) -Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta and Variants of Interest (VoI) – Mu, Lambda. According to the latest WHO report, the United Kingdom has reported the highest number of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant cases. Unlike the previous SARS-CoV-2 variants including Delta, the present variant, Omicron does not lead to severe respiratory infection. The variant’s spike protein has a higher affinity for the human Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor. The present context explores the details about the epidemiology, risk assessment and the genetic comparison of Omicron with other SARS-CoV-2 variants along with the impact of vaccines on Omicron infection.