Experts, on Wednesday said that to identify and know the presence the Omicron (B.1.1.529) sub-lineage BA.2 genome sequencing was necessary. Since BA.2 does not have the S gene dropout unlike the main sub-lineage BA.1, it escapes identification through RT-PCR tests.

Dr Emma Hodcroft, co-developer of Nextstrain, an open-source project to harness scientific and public health potential of pathogen genome data, said new PCRs need to be designed as the current ones can only detect the COVID positive cases, but it was difficult to identify the Omicron or Omicron-like presence.

Dr Vinod Scaria, senior scientist at Delhi’s Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) stated that Omicron variant may also cause immune evasion and vaccine breakthrough infection. The Pfizer vaccine was more effective in cases of hybrid immunity (vaccine plus previous infection).

The Omicron lineage was first identified on November 8, 2021. Phylogenetic Assignment of Named Global Outbreak Lineages (PANGOLIN) officially announced the new sub-lineages on December 7.

Source: ET Healthworld