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. 2022 Nov 12;7(11):373.
doi: 10.3390/tropicalmed7110373.

Global Distribution, Dispersal Patterns, and Trend of Several Omicron Subvariants of SARS-CoV-2 across the Globe

Ioannis Kopsidas  1 , Sofia Karagiannidou  2 , Evangelia Georgia Kostaki  3 , Dimitra Kousi  1 , Eirini Douka  2 , Petros P Sfikakis  4 , Serafeim Moustakidis  5 , Christos Kokkotis  6 , Dimitrios Tsaopoulos  7 , Ioulia Tseti  8 , Theoklis Zaoutis  2 , Dimitrios Paraskevis  2   3
Affiliations

Global Distribution, Dispersal Patterns, and Trend of Several Omicron Subvariants of SARS-CoV-2 across the Globe

Ioannis Kopsidas et al. Trop Med Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Our study aims to describe the global distribution and dispersal patterns of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants. Genomic surveillance data were extracted from the CoV-Spectrum platform, searching for BA.1*, BA.2*, BA.3*, BA.4*, and BA.5* variants by geographic region. BA.1* increased in November 2021 in South Africa, with a similar increase across all continents in early December 2021. BA.1* did not reach 100% dominance in all continents. The spread of BA.2*, first described in South Africa, differed greatly by geographic region, in contrast to BA.1*, which followed a similar global expansion, firstly occurring in Asia and subsequently in Africa, Europe, Oceania, and North and South America. BA.4* and BA.5* followed a different pattern, where BA.4* reached high proportions (maximum 60%) only in Africa. BA.5* is currently, by Mid-August 2022, the dominant strain, reaching almost 100% across Europe, which is the first continent aside from Africa to show increasing proportions, and Asia, the Americas, and Oceania are following. The emergence of new variants depends mostly on their selective advantage, translated as enhanced transmissibility and ability to invade people with existing immunity. Describing these patterns is useful for a better understanding of the epidemiology of the VOCs' transmission and for generating hypotheses about the future of emerging variants.

Keywords: Omicron; SARS-CoV-2; VOC; coronavirus; distribution; emergence; epidemiology; subvariants; variants.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Proportion of samples over time by continent for (a) BA.1* and (b) BA.2*.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The dynamics of variants across 17 European countries shown with heatmaps representing the proportion of all samples. Heatmap shown with a maximum of 100% (a) BA.1* variants (b) BA.2* variants.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Days between first case and proportion of at least 50% of all samples (a) BA.1* variants (b) BA.2* variants.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Proportion of samples over time by continent for (a) BA.4* and (b) BA.5*.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Proportion of samples over time by continent for (a) BA.4* and (b) BA.5*.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The dynamics of (a) BA.4*and (b) BA.5* variants across 17 European countries shown with heatmaps representing the proportion of all samples. All heatmaps shown with a maximum of 100%.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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