Omicron Variant of SARS-CoV-2

Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 by all original accounts, is milder. According to Dr. Angelique Coetzee, Chair of South African Medical Association, “very mild” symptoms that differed from the dominant Delta variant were noticed in seven patients at her clinic. An alert technician noticed a different RT-PCR pattern and sequencing revealed a new, hitherto unreported variant. The Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant has specific deletions that is also shared by the Alpha and Eta variants. It has insertion mutations (addition of 3 amino acid residues) along with a cluster of mutations in the S1-S2 furin site. In…