What is the Omicron variant? Meaning of the new Covid strain’s name and why it is causing concern worldwide

The Omicron Covid-19 variant has caused countries across the world to halt travel from southern Africa amid serious concern over the new variant.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has labelled the variant as a concern due to its large number of mutations.

What is the Omicron variant?

The Omicron variant is a new form of Covid-19 that has been labelled as a “variant of concern” instead of the lesser “variant of interest” by the WHO.

Other variants of concern have been identified in the past, most recently the Delta variant that emerged in June and is now dominant across the UK. The Alpha, Beta and Gamma variants are also listed as of concern.

Omicron is the Greek letter for O, continuing WHO’s Greek alphabet naming convention for Covid-19 variants. It opted to skip the letter N, perhaps for clarity, as this would be known as the “Nu” variant.

Why is it causing concern?

The Omicron variant (originally identified as B.1.1.529) has a large number of mutations and early research suggests this could cause an increased risk of reinfection, according to the WHO. This would mean that the variant could cause recoverees of Covid-19 to become infected again and that vaccines could be less effective overall.

Where did the Omicron variant come from?

The first confirmed case of Omicron was detected on 9 November in South Africa, and the variant was reported to the WHO on 24 November.

South Africa has seen three main spikes of Covid-19, most recently with the Delta variant, but the number of new cases suggests that Omicron could cause another spike. The country’s 7-day average on 26 November was 3,459 compared to 417 a week earlier.

What is the UK doing to stop it?

Six countries have been put on the UK’s red list for travel: South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini. Travel from these countries is temporarily banned and all UK travellers returning from one will be asked to quarantine for ten days.

Attendees of England’s rugby game against South Africa last week are also being urged to come forward and be tested.

The Omicron variant has already reached Europe, with Belgium reporting its first case late on Friday. Confirmed cases of Omicron have also been found in Hong Kong, Israel and Botswana.

The EU and United States have also imposed a travel ban on the six countries, with the US adding Mozambique and Malawi to the list.