The new fast mutating variant of coronavirus discovered in South Africa has been named as ‘omicron’ by the World Health Organisation experts, who met on Friday to assess the variant, which appears to have a high number of mutations in the virus’ spike protein.  Classifying this strain of SARS CoV-2 as a “variant of concern”, WHO confirmed yesterday that the early evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection by omicron variant.  

The WHO experts, who expressed serious concern about the impact, said that while more data on the risks of omicron is expected in a week or two, the infection rates in South Africa have “increased steeply,” after the discovery of the omicron variant.  

Several countries, including the US, UK, Israel among others have already reacted to the newly discovered variant with travel restrictions from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.

The fast mutating variant of coronavirus found in  South Africa on November 24, was first coded as B.1.1.529. This variant has been found rapidly spreading among young people and has already spawned numerous mutations. Health administrations in most countries and researchers have however started monitoring the omicron variant’s potential to spread globally, possibly sparking new waves of infection or exacerbating ongoing spikes driven by the currently dominant delta variant.