A contagious new COVID-19 variant called NB.1.8.1, aka "Nimbus," is now dominant in the United States, CDC data show. What to ...

Omicron appears to have evolved separately from the Delta variant, descending from another strain that appeared in mid-2020. Some scientists speculate it may have accumulated so many changes while ...

COVID walkouts: Why Omicron is pushing teachers and students to leave the classroom As school districts experience uniquely low student attendance, who exactly wants schools open?

As Omicron moved from person to person, its descendants gained more mutations. Sometimes two Omicron viruses would wind up in the same cell, which would produce new hybrid viruses with a mix of ...

Omicron is associated with a two-thirds reduction in the risk of hospitalization compared to Delta, according to a Scottish study. A separate paper from South Africa put the same figure at 80%.

Omicron has filled up U.S. hospitals with more COVID-19 patients than any other surge of the pandemic. But there's been a shift in how the illness behaves since the days of delta, with many cases ...

Omicron also shows less aptitude for fusing cells together, which creates masses that are a hallmark of severe covid-19 in autopsies. Advertisement. Advertisement.

The Omicron variant of coronavirus is spreading quickly in several countries where it has hit. Even if it causes only mild disease – and that’s far from certain – that’s alarming.

Omicron is the 15th letter in the Greek alphabet. It uses the uppercase "Ο" and lowercase "ο" symbols. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary , its literal translation in Greek means "small o." ...

While omicron seems to provoke milder illness for many people, "the truth is that it's probably somewhere in between what you think of as a common cold or flu and the COVID that we had before ...

Omicron vs. T cells: Why scientists are banking on the immune system's 'memory' Even as antibody levels against the variant wane, the immune system may still be primed by vaccines or previous ...

The Omicron patients were also younger, and more likely to be vaccinated, than were those with previous variants, which may partially account for the milder illness.