COVID 'Omicron' Variant Spikes Global Concern, but How Was It First Discovered?

The Head of Science at Lancet got the shock of her life while sequencing the genes on eight coronavirus samples.

By 22 November, Lancet was reportedly able to conclude that there was a new variant.

(Photo: The Quint)

After weeks of calm that followed the third COVID-19 wave in parts of South Africa, while the people in the region were attempting to piece their lives and the economy back together, early November saw a flood of patients rushing to doctors with fatigues and headaches.

This is also when laboratories in South Africa’s Guanting province began picking up “something unusual” while processing the coronavirus test samples, according to Bloomberg.

Shock, Followed by a Sinking Feeling

According to Bloomberg, Junior Lancet scientist Alicia Vermeulen was credited with making the initial find – an anomaly on a single positive test – on the afternoon of 4 November. She told her manager about it.

Over the next few days, the same anomaly was repeatedly picked up and the information conveyed to Allison Glass, head of molecular pathology at Lancet and a member of the government's Ministerial Advisory Council on COVID-19.

According to Reuters, Raquel Viana, Head of Science at Lancet (private testing labs) received the shock of her life while sequencing the genes on eight coronavirus samples. The shock instantly paved way for a sinking feeling. She quickly rang up her colleague at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Johannesburg, gene sequencer Daniel Amoako.

Determining the New Variant

By 22 November, Lancet was reportedly able to conclude that there was a new variant. The S-gene could not be detected in this new variant, because it had mutated. Omicron was initially dubbed B.1.1.529.

On 23 November, the NICD entered the data into he GISAID global science database. They soon discovered that Botswana-based scientists and those in Hong Kong had also, in the meanwhile, picked up the same anomalies in travellers.

On 24 November, the NICD notified the World Health Organization.

Why Some South Africans Are Angry

As cases in South Africa spike, owing to Omicron, and panicked countries rush to shut South Africa out, despite the variant already having been found in about 20 other countries, anger bubbles in South Africa against the purportedly discriminatory treatment.

While scientists receive hate mail for alerting the world, which was quick to alienate them, about the new strain, Wolfgang Preiser, a virologist at Stellenbosch University told Reuters:

"It might encourage other countries to hide things, or rather, just not to look.”

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also expressed empathy with and support of South Africa, saying, on Monday:

"The people of Africa cannot be blamed for the immorally low level of vaccinations available in Africa - and they should not be penalised for identifying and sharing crucial science and health information with the world.”

Meanwhile...

Meanwhile, Dutch health authorities on Tuesday, 30 November, announced that they found the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 in cases that stem from before the first cases were identified in South Africa. According to CBS News, Belgium and Germany have also said that tests show the variant was in their countries before South African health officials pointed it out to the world.

(With inputs from Reuters, Bloomberg, and CBS News.)