ew COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, first detected from South Africa this week, was on Friday designated as a “Variant of Concern" by the World Health Organisation, which named it “Omicron".
A “variant of concern" is the WHO's top category of worrying Covid variants. The WHO said the Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE), an independent group of experts that periodically monitors and evaluates the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and assesses if specific mutations and combinations of mutations alter the behaviour of the virus, convened on Friday to assess the B.1.1.529 variant, first reported to the world health body from South Africa on November 24. "The new #COVID19 virus variant - Omicron - has a large number of mutations,