The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 variant as a Variant of Concern (VOC) under the advice of the Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE)—an independent group of experts that periodically monitors and evaluates the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and assess if specific mutations and combinations of mutations alter the behavior of the virus. The WHO has assigned the B.1.1.529 VOC the label Omicron per their greek-letter key variant assignment system. The elevation of Omicron to a WHO-designated VOC was based on the TAG-VE’s assessment of the variant’s large number of genomic mutations and plausible impact on COVID-19 epidemiology.

The PHA4GE Pipelines and Visualization Working Group has created a guidance document to highlight critical open-source/accesses resources to aid in the understanding and further analysis of the Omicron variant. Special thanks to everyone who contributed in the creation of the document and discussions.

In no way does this document represent a comprehensive list of all available SC2 bioinformatics resources. If this document fails to include a valuable public health resource or in some way mischaracterizes a resource mentioned, we encourage community collaboration through pull-requests and/or raised GitHub issues.

Link to full document: https://github.com/pha4ge/pipeline-resources/blob/main/docs/omicron-resources.md