1887
Rapid communication Open Access
Like 0

Abstract

Following emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron in November 2021, the dominant BA.1 sub-lineage was replaced by the BA.2 sub-lineage in Denmark. We analysed the first 2,623 BA.2 cases from 29 November 2021 to 2 January 2022. No epidemiological or clinical differences were found between individuals infected with BA.1 versus BA.2. Phylogenetic analyses showed a geographic east-to-west transmission of BA.2 from the Capital Region with clusters expanding after the Christmas holidays. Mutational analysis shows distinct differences between BA.1 and BA.2.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.10.2200181
2022-03-10
2024-11-21
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.10.2200181
Loading
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/27/10/eurosurv-27-10-2.html?itemId=/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.10.2200181&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Viana R, Moyo S, Amoako DG, Tegally H, Scheepers C, Althaus CL, et al. Rapid epidemic expansion of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in southern Africa. Nature. 2022. Epub ahead of print.  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04411-y  PMID: 35042229 
  2. Hansen CH, Schelde AB, Moustsen-Helm IR, Emborg H-D, Krause TG, Mølbak K, et al. Vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection with the Omicron or Delta variants following a two-dose or booster BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 vaccination series: A Danish cohort study. medRxiv. 2021.12.20.21267966. Preprint.  https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.20.21267966 
  3. World Health Organization (WHO). Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern. Geneva: WHO; 26 Nov 2021. Available from: https://www.who.int/news/item/26-11-2021-classification-of-omicron-(b.1.1.529)-sars-cov-2-variant-of-concern#:~:text=Based%20on%20the%20evidence%20presented,as%20a%20VOC%2C%20named%20Omicron
  4. Zeng C, Evans JP, Qu P, Faraone J, Zheng Y-M, Carlin C, et al. Neutralization and stability of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. bioRxiv. 2021.12.16.472934. Preprint.  https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.16.472934 
  5. Andrew R. Proposal to split B.1.1.529 to incorporate a newly characterised sibling lineage #361. Github. 7 Dec 2021. Available from: https://github.com/cov-lineages/pango-designation/issues/361
  6. United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA). SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants under investigation in England – Technical Briefing 35. London: UKHSA; 2022. Available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1050999/Technical-Briefing-35-28January2022.pdf
  7. World Health Organization (WHO). Enhancing response to Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant: Technical brief and priority actions for Member States, Update #5. Geneva: WHO; 7 Jan 2022. Available from: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/2022-01-07-global-technical-brief-and-priority-action-on-omicron---corr2.pdf?sfvrsn=918b09d_20
  8. Statens Serum Institut (SSI). Now, an Omicron variant, BA.2, accounts for almost half of all Danish Omicron-cases. Copenhagen: SSI; 20 Jan 2022. Available from: https://en.ssi.dk/news/news/2022/omicron-variant-ba2-accounts-for-almost-half-of-all-danish-omicron-cases
  9. Espenhain L, Funk T, Overvad M, Edslev SM, Fonager J, Ingham AC, et al. Epidemiological characterisation of the first 785 SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant cases in Denmark, December 2021. Euro Surveill. 2021;26(50):2101146.  https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.50.2101146  PMID: 34915977 
  10. Lyngse FP, Kirkeby CT, Denwood M, Christiansen LE, Mølbak K, Møller CH, et al. Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron VOC subvariants BA.1 and BA.2: Evidence from Danish households. medRxiv. 2022.01.28.22270044. Preprint. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.28.22270044
  11. Elbe S, Buckland-Merrett G. Data, disease and diplomacy: GISAID’s innovative contribution to global health. Glob Chall. 2017;1(1):33-46.  https://doi.org/10.1002/gch2.1018  PMID: 31565258 
  12. Bager P, Wohlfahrt J, Bhatt S, Edslev SM, Sieber RN, Ingham AC, et al. Reduced risk of hospitalisation associated with infection with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron relative to Delta: A Danish cohort study. SSRN. 2021.4008930. Preprint. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4008930
  13. Katoh K, Misawa K, Kuma K, Miyata T. MAFFT: a novel method for rapid multiple sequence alignment based on fast Fourier transform. Nucleic Acids Res. 2002;30(14):3059-66.  https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkf436  PMID: 12136088 
  14. Nguyen LT, Schmidt HA, von Haeseler A, Minh BQ. IQ-TREE: a fast and effective stochastic algorithm for estimating maximum-likelihood phylogenies. Mol Biol Evol. 2015;32(1):268-74.  https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msu300  PMID: 25371430 
  15. To TH, Jung M, Lycett S, Gascuel O. Fast dating using least-squares criteria and algorithms. Syst Biol. 2016;65(1):82-97.  https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syv068  PMID: 26424727 
  16. Ishikawa SA, Zhukova A, Iwasaki W, Gascuel O. A fast likelihood method to reconstruct and visualize ancestral scenarios. Mol Biol Evol. 2019;36(9):2069-85.  https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msz131  PMID: 31127303 
  17. Wickham H. ggplot2: Elegant graphics for data analysis. Second edition. New York: Springer; 2016.
  18. R Core Team. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing; 2021. Available from: https://www.r-project.org
  19. Aksamentov I, Roemer C, Hodcroft E, Neher R. Nextclade: clade assignment, mutation calling and quality control for viral genomes. J Open Source Softw. 2021;6(67):3773.  https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.03773 
  20. Waterhouse A, Bertoni M, Bienert S, Studer G, Tauriello G, Gumienny R, et al. SWISS-MODEL: homology modelling of protein structures and complexes. Nucleic Acids Res. 2018;46(W1):W296-303.  https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gky427  PMID: 29788355 
  21. Zhang J, Cai Y, Xiao T, Lu J, Peng H, Sterling SM, et al. Structural impact on SARS-CoV-2 spike protein by D614G substitution. Science. 2021;372(6541):525-30.  https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf2303  PMID: 33727252 
  22. Mannar D, Saville JW, Zhu X, Srivastava SS, Berezuk AM, Tuttle KS, et al. SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant: Antibody evasion and cryo-EM structure of spike protein-ACE2 complex. Science. 2022;375(6582):760-4.  https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn7760  PMID: 35050643 
  23. Pettersen EF, Goddard TD, Huang CC, Meng EC, Couch GS, Croll TI, et al. UCSF ChimeraX: Structure visualization for researchers, educators, and developers. Protein Sci. 2021;30(1):70-82.  https://doi.org/10.1002/pro.3943  PMID: 32881101 
  24. Veneti L, Bøås H, Bråthen Kristoffersen A, Stålcrantz J, Bragstad K, Hungnes O, et al. Reduced risk of hospitalisation among reported COVID-19 cases infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 variant compared with the Delta variant, Norway, December 2021 to January 2022. Euro Surveill. 2022;27(4)2200077.  https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.4.2200077  PMID: 35086614 
  25. Brandal LT, MacDonald E, Veneti L, Ravlo T, Lange H, Naseer U, et al. Outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in Norway, November to December 2021. Euro Surveill. 2021;26(50)2101147.  https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.50.2101147  PMID: 34915975 
  26. Lyngse FP, Mortensen LH, Denwood MJ, Christiansen LE, Møller CH, Skov RL, et al. SARS-CoV-2 Omicron VOC transmission in Danish households. medRxiv. 2021.12.27.21268278. Preprint. http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.27.21268278
  27. Eggink D, Andeweg SP, Vennema H, van Maarseveen N, Vermaas K, Vlaemynck B, et al. Increased risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 compared with Delta in vaccinated and previously infected individuals, the Netherlands, 22 November 2021 to 19 January 2022. Euro Surveill. 2022;27(4)210196.  https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.4.2101196  PMID: 35086609 
  28. Watanabe Y, Berndsen ZT, Raghwani J, Seabright GE, Allen JD, Pybus OG, et al. Vulnerabilities in coronavirus glycan shields despite extensive glycosylation. Nat Commun. 2020;11(1):2688.  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16567-0  PMID: 32461612 
  29. Tian W, Li D, Zhang N, Bai G, Yuan K, Xiao H, et al. O-glycosylation pattern of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein reveals an "O-Follow-N" rule. Cell Res. 2021;31(10):1123-5.  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-021-00545-2  PMID: 34341488 
  30. McCallum M, De Marco A, Lempp FA, Tortorici MA, Pinto D, Walls AC, et al. N-terminal domain antigenic mapping reveals a site of vulnerability for SARS-CoV-2. Cell. 2021;184(9):2332-2347.e16.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.03.028  PMID: 33761326 
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.10.2200181
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Supplementary data

Submit comment
Close
Comment moderation successfully completed
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error