Completed by the National Network of Genomic Surveillance of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which operates under the coordination of EODY, the genomic analysis in 1,725 samples that have been randomly selected or targeted and concern the period 23 December 2021 to 31 January 2022. of 1,725 samples, a total of 1,589 samples with special interest members (Variants Of Concern – VOC) emerged.
Of the 1,589 specimens of special interest, 1,425 relate to the Omicron strain and 164 relate to the Delta (Table 3). Four (4) of the 164 Delta executives belong to the AY.4.2 executive and which were located in the Regional Units of Eastern Attica (1), the Northern Sector of Athens (1), Lesvos (1) and Piraeus (1). Twenty-nine (29) of the 1,425 Omicron strains relate to strain BA.2, which were detected in twenty-one (21) domestic cases in the Peripheral Units of Arta (1), the Northern Sector of Athens (1), the Western Sector of Athens ( 2), of Heraklion (3), of the Central Sector of Athens (8), of Lassithi (4), of Milos (1) and of the Southern Sector of Athens (1) and in eight (8) imported cases.
Since the launch of the National Network of Genomic Surveillance of the SARS-CoV-2 virus until today, a total of 47,571 samples of domestic cases have been tested in the country. Of these, 43,007 come from random sampling, 3,823 come from targeted sampling or sample selection, and for 741 samples the selection method is not available.
During the two months before January 31, 2022, a total of 8,389 samples of domestic cases had been tested in the territory. Of these, 8,097 are from random sampling and 292 are from targeted sampling or sampling. Among the 8,097 randomly selected samples in the territory for the two months prior to January 31, 2022, the two most common special interest strains isolated are Delta with 55.92%, followed by Omicron with 44.07% (Table 4). Among the 292 samples that were taken or selected purposefully during the two months before 31 Jan 2022, 69.86% belong to the Omicron strain and 30.14% to the Delta strain.
In addition, a total of 634 members of special interest or under surveillance or interest have been isolated from samples of imported cases, of which 335 concern Delta, 165 Omicron, 113 Alpha, 7 Mu, 6 Beta, 4 B.1.1 .318 (Variant E484K), 1 in Eta, 1 in C.36, 1 in Kappa and 1 in B.1.1 (Variant E484K).
The evolution of the relative frequency of sequenced samples from random sampling per species of strain up to week 04 of 2022 is shown in Figure 9.
Regarding the stakeholders who need immediate control measures currently in the country, the geographical distribution by Regional Unit is presented in Table 5.
The characteristic mutation (deletion of nucleotides at position 69-70 (del69-70) in the Spike gene) of the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529 / BA.1) allows the immediate, preliminary characterization of positive samples as very possible cases for Omicron, from specific laboratories in the country that apply appropriate molecular methodology Real-Time PCR. The evaluation of this molecular finding allows a preliminary real-time assessment of the impact of Omicron (B.1.1.529 / BA.1) on all positive molecular tests.
Accurate assessment of the effect of Omicron, of course, can only be done by sequencing the complete virus genome from representative positive samples (genomic surveillance).
The following is a diagram (Chart 10) of the evolution of these samples over time in all the positive molecular tests performed on samples, representative of most of the Territory, from December 20, 2021 to February 7, 2022.
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