The new variant B.1.1.529, which the World Health Organization officially named omicron, was first discovered on November 11, 2021, in Botswana.  That's just north of South Africa.

The Omicron variant of COVID-19 may be around 500 percent more infectious than the Delta variant, a leading epidemiologist has said. B.1.1.529 quickly was designated Omicron and most countries now have a ban on those African countries. Emergency brakes to travel don't work of course, they only slow the spread of the variant a little bit. But if the variant is as contagious as some think it could be, it will be difficult.

The Delta strain's receptor binding domain (RBI)—where the virus first makes contact and binds to the body's cells—had two mutations; compared to B.1.1.529's ten RBI mutations. De Oliveira wrote on Twitter yesterday that "B.1.1.529 seems to spread very quick! In less than two weeks, [it] now dominates all infections following a devastating Delta wave in South Africa." It appears thus to out-compete Delta by a significant margin. The new variant is thought to have 32 mutations in its spike protein and is feared to be able to bypass vaccines and immunity gained from being infected before. Cases have been recorded in Hong Kong, Belgium and Israel outside of Africa.

The variant has been described as "the worst one we've seen so far" and scientists are concerned about it spreading. Scientists are still unclear on how effective vaccines will be against the new variant flagged by a team in South Africa, which displays mutations that might resist neutralization. It's believed that Omicron's spike might be able to evade antibodies produced by either a previous infection or a vaccine. It might make current vaccines less effective or even obsolete.

The B.1.1.529 variant was first reported to WHO from South Africa on 24 November 2021. The first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on 9 November 2021.

Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), sent a series of tweets on Friday indicating the potential competitive advantage of the new variant over older ones. I find the Tweet quite dramatic:

The way Omicron has displaced Delta in South Africa is a sign of things to come. This is why the panic is real. The discovery of the new variant coincides with a renewed surge in COVID-19 infections in Europe. If the 4th wave of Delta is getting serious, the 5th wave of Omicron has started.