The novel coronavirus which was initially detected in Wuhan, China has been evolving very quickly over the past two years, and it resulted in the formation of mutant variants of the pandemic. After the rise of the Alpha variant, the Delta variant of the pandemic wreak havoc in countries like the United States, and India. And now, a new variant of Covid named Omicron has been detected in Botswana and South Africa. According to the latest updates, the variant has been now detected in at least 13 countries, and the entire world is under alert to combat the spread of this mutant variant.
Omicron vs Delta: Origin
When it comes to origin, the Omicron variant has been initially detected in Southern African countries. It is still unclear whether the Omicron variant had its origin there, but the variant was first detected via genome sequencing in South Africa.
However, the Delta variant was apparently initially detected in India, and soon, it spread to various countries all across the world. According to medical experts, the dominant strain of coronavirus now is the Delta variant in almost all nations.
Omicron vs Delta: The crucial mutation factor
Genome sequencing has suggested that the Omicron variant has comparatively higher mutations than the Delta variant of Covid. According to researchers, there are 43 aa mutations in Omicron, when compared to 18 in Delta.
Vaccine effectiveness is another crucial factor that is bothering medical experts post the rise of the Omicron variant. Several previous studies had suggested that the Covishield vaccine is highly effective against the Delta variant of Covid. However, the Omicron variant has 26 unique mutations, and many of them are in regions targeted by vaccine antibodies. Considering the number of unique mutations, several medical experts believe that the Omicron variant of Covid could evade the immunity offered by Covid vaccines.
