1Zonal Microbiologist, Central Railway Hospital (North Western Railway), Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
2Department of Natural Sciences, Northeastern State University, 3100 New Orleans St, Broken Arrow, OK74014, USA
*Corresponding author email id: srishti.1918@gmail.com
The world is still recovering economically, emotionally and politically from the devastation caused by dominant Delta variant when it is being hit again by another heavily mutated version of SARS-COV-2 virus. It was initially called B.1.1.529 but later on termed as ‘Omicron’. World Health Organization declared it as a Variant of Concern (VOC) on 30 November 2021. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 has accumulated mutations that likely further adapt it to humans. These accumulated mutations have given Omicron a very high level of contagiousness along with less severity till now. In this article, we describe the newly identified Omicron current situation in terms of transmissibility, severity, etc. Its detection, its impact on current vaccination efficacy and clinical treatments available are also discussed.
Breakthrough infection, COVID-19, Omicron, SARS-CoV-2, Vaccine, Variant of concern, Receptor-binding domain
