Category: Mutation
Eric Topol: The Covid Capitulation
“The real number of cases is likely at least 500,000 per day, far greater than any of the US prior waves except Omicron.… ...More...
UK: Covid infection of 505 days is a new record
King’s College London researchers have described the longest known COVID-19 infection. The patient tested positive for the virus for 505 continuous days before their death.… ...More...
Preprint: L452R mutation increases Omicron variant fusogenicity and infectivity
Here, we developed an L452R mutated Omicron variant (Omicron-L452R) and found that the Omicron-L452R variant rescued fusogenicity and strengthened the high infectivity by enhancing the cleavage of the spike protein.… ...More...
Denmark Covid-19 Trends Report – Week 10
Denmark’s Covid-19 trends report for Week 10 of 2022 shows BA.2_H78Y is stable at about 27% of sequences for the third week in a row.… ...More...
BA.2 spawns another subvariant – BA.2 + ORF1a:M85 – already at 10% of sequences in Denmark
Yet another fast-growing offshoot of Omicron BA.2 has been reported in Denmark today. Just 12 days ago we reported on the appearance of BA.2 with H78Y in ORf3a here and here.… ...More...
Hong Kong: Transmission of Sars-CoV-2 Delta strain from hamsters to humans and onward human propagation of the adapted strain
Two separate transmission events from Syrian hamsters to humans are documented, one leading to onward household spread.
Over 50% of individually tested Syrian hamsters in the pet shop (8/16) and warehouse (7/12) were positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection in RT-PCR or serological tests.… ...More...
Poland: Sars-CoV-2 spillover event from mink that lasted at least three months
We report the spillover of mink-adapted SARS-CoV-2 from farmed mink to humans after adaptation that lasted at least three months.… ...More...
France: new Sars-CoV-2 variant B.1.640.2 with N501Y and E484K detected
Twelve SARS-CoV-2 positive patients living in southeastern France are infected with a variant with atypical mutations. The index case returned from travel in Cameroon.… ...More...
Preprint: Evidence for a mouse origin of the Omicron variant
Pre-outbreak Omicron mutations in the spike protein significantly overlap with mutations in mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2.
The molecular docking-based predictions suggested that the RBD of Omicron exhibited higher binding affinity for mouse ACE2 than that of RBD encoded in the reference SARS-CoV-2 genome, further suggesting an evolutionary history in mice (Fig.… ...More...
Preprint: Omicron now binds to mouse ACE2
“Here, we show that the Omicron RBD binds to human ACE2 with enhanced affinity relative to the Wuhan-Hu-1 RBD and acquires binding to mouse ACE2.”… ...More...
Preprint: Omicron is the product of extensive evolution that has left no obvious traces of intermediate forms
The Omicron variant identified in Southern Africa in late November 2021 is the product of extensive evolution within an infection context that has so far left no obvious traces of intermediate forms since it diverged from the B.1.1 lineage (presumably at some time in mid to late 2020).… ...More...
UKHSA risk assessment for Omicron variant
UK risk assessment for Omicron variant B.1.1.529, dated 3rd December 2021
Transmissibility between humans: Amber – At least as transmissible as currently circulating variants
Omicron is transmitting rapidly and successfully.… ...More...
Omicron variant: first European case of B.1.1.529 found in Belgium via Egypt and Turkey
A woman with coronavirus symptoms after a trip to Egypt with a stopover in Turkey is the first confirmed case in Belgium of a patient infected with the new variant B.1.1.529, known as ‘Omicron’, initially located by the scientific community in the Southern African countries.… ...More...
B.1.1.529 Omicron: Sars-Cov-2 variant with extremely high number of Spike mutations
“Currently only 4 sequences so would recommend monitoring for now. Export to Asia implies this might be more widespread than sequences alone would imply.… ...More...