Emergence of New SARS-CoV2 Omicron Variants after the Change of Surveillance and Control Strategy

Abstract

In January 2022, there was a global and rapid surge of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 related to more transmission. This coincided with an increase in the incidence in Asturias, a region where rapid diagnosis and containment measures had limited the circulation of variants. Methods: From January to June 2022, 34,591 variants were determined by the SNP method. From them, 445 were characterized by the WGS method and classified following pangolin program and phylogenic analysis. Results: The Omicron variant went from being detected in 2438 (78%) samples in the first week of January 2021 to 4074 (98%) in the third week, according to the SNP method. Using the WGS method, 159 BA.1 (35.7%), 256 BA.2 (57.6%), 1 BA.4 (0.2%) and 10 BA.5 (2.2%) Omicron variants were found. Phylogenetic analysis detected that three new sub-clades, BA.2,3.5, BA.2.56 and BF1, were circulating. Conclusions: The increase in the incidence of SARS-CoV2 caused the circulation of new emerging variants. Viral evolution calls for continuous genomic surveillance.

Resolving omicron sub-variants of SARS CoV-2 coronavirus with MALDI mass spectrometry

“…Protein based approaches are also more transferable to studies that explore viral proteins to assess infectivity and immune escape mechanisms and for the development of monoclonal antibody and antiviral drug therapies. 23…”

Cardiovascular, Pulmonary, and Neuropsychiatric Short- and Long-Term Complications of COVID-19

“…Long COVID is a new term that describes Another very important aspect of SARS-CoV-2 is the continuing mutation of this virus [ 127 , 128 , 129 ]. At the beginning of the year 2022, the Omicron variant became the predominant cause of the disease [ 130 ]. Infection with the Omicron variant caused milder disease with much fewer need for hospitalization [ 131 , 132 ].…”

Monitoring and tracking the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Asturias, Spain

“…are capable of controlling the circulation of these variants. Subsequently, the high vaccination coverage and the increase in diagnoses led to the transition to a strategy that monitors and directs actions to the most vulnerable people and areas, and in this situation new variants began to be found in Asturias [ 48 ]. Finally, use of the SNP method allowed us to determine, in more or less real time, the most important variants circulating, thus showing it to be a good method of epidemiological control complementary to WGS.…”