What is this new variant? A variant is nothing, but a slightly altered or mutated version of a virus. There are thousands of COVID variants present around the world which is to be expected because mutation in viruses is common phenomenon. Most of these mutations are not much of that concern, because they do not provide additional features to the virus. Omicron is strikingly different from many other types due to the long list of genetic mutations it has undergone, which has increased the infectivity of virus. What causes a virus to change to a new variant? When a virus is widely circulating in a population and causing many infections, the likelihood of the virus mutating increases. The more opportunities a virus obtains to spread, the more it replicates – and the more opportunities it gets to undergo changes. Most viral mutations have little to no impact on the virus’s ability to cause infections and disease. But depending on where the changes are in the virus’s genetic material, they