According to a preliminary investigation, the Omicron COVID-19 variant may have taken up genetic material from a virus that causes the common cold, making it more transmissible but less virulent than other variants.

After sequencing the Omicron variant, researchers from the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based firm Nference discovered a fragment of genetic code that is also present in a virus that can cause a cold.

The researcher said that the mutation could have been caused by someone who was infected with both SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and HCoV-229R, which causes the common cold, at the same time. The research has yet to be peer-reviewed.

Venky Soundararajan, a co-author of the study said: “striking” similarity between Omicron and HCoV-229E could have led the variant to be “more accustomed to human hosts” and more likely to evade immune responses.

He also said, “By virtue of Omicron adopting this insertion … it is essentially taking a leaf out of the seasonal coronaviruses’ page, which [explains] … how it lives and transmits more efficiently with human beings.”

Read more: Study: shows Medicare spending for ‘accelerated approval’ drugs on the rise

The variant has been spreading through South Africa, where scientists initially discovered it, with cases in Gauteng province, which is home to the countries densely populated economic hub, has doubled roughly every three days.

South Africa reported 11,535 new COVID-19 cases, up 35% from the day before, after the country’s National Institute of Communicable Diseases announced on Wednesday that Omicron had taken over as the prevalent strain in November, accounting for 74% of genomes sequenced.

Since then the variation has been discovered in dozens of nations, including at least 12 states in the United States.

Also Read

Study: Air pollution, other factors may impact the gender of babies in the region

According to a study published in the journal of lPLOS Computational Biology,...