Omicron now has three sub-variants

HYDERABAD: Omicron, the new coronavirus variant of concern, now has three siblings - one up from two sub-lineages discovered last week, reports Syed Akbar.

According to Phylogenetic Assignment of Named Global Outbreak Lineages (Pangolin) that assigns lineages under 'Pango lineage' system to various viruses, including the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, the third outlier of Omicron was found from a sample collected from England on December 3. The new outlier of Omicron variant has been temporarily named 'England/MILK-2D24AC9/2021'.

Dr Vinod Scaria of Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi, has confirmed the development. Omicron, or B.1.1.529, split into two sub-lineages of BA.1 and BA.2 earlier this month. These two variants have some shared mutations.