There are over 50 different mutation of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the most out of any other variant of the virus.
Doctors are unable to come to a consensus of just why the virus is able to mutate so quickly and spread quicker than any other variant, but it has mostly to do with the “spike protein” of the virus. That’s the part that attacks health cells in the body and makes you sick.
“The best way to think of it is this virus is constantly mutating,” said Dr. Chris Doerhing with Franciscan Health on WISH-TV. “Where those mutations happen on it’s genome are all over the map.”
He said the “vast majority” of those mutations don’t have any clinical significance, but that some do and those are the mutations that catch the attention of scientists when studying the infectiousness of a virus.
The Omicron variant overall is about 70 times more contagious than the Delta variant.
Indiana has set a new record for most coronavirus cases in a month, and we’re only halfway through January. The State Department of Health yesterday reported just over 195 thousand coronavirus cases as of Sunday. That’s more than the old monthly record of 173 thousand cases for the entire month of December, 2020.
