COVID-19 Omicron variant and low immunity after vaccination

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or known as COVID-19 has spread all over the world as a new mutant variant of Omicron (B.1.1.529) that spread worldwide causing a high surge of new infections with serious illness in some area of the world. In addition to that, whether the current COVID-19 vaccines could effectively resist reinfection with the new strain. This antibody resistance was due to SARS-CoV-2 mutations on the spike (S) protein receptor-binding domain (RBD). Omicron is about ten times more transmissible than the original virus or about twice as communicable as the Delta variant. Three-dimensional structures of antibody-RBD complexes showed that Omicron was twice more likely to escape present vaccines than the Delta variant.