Shorter serial intervals in SARS-CoV-2 cases with Omicron BA.1 variant compared with Delta variant, the Netherlands, 13 to 26 December 2021

Jantien A Backer; Dirk Eggink; Stijn P Andeweg; Irene K Veldhuijzen; Noortje van Maarseveen; Klaas Vermaas; Boris Vlaemynck; Raf Schepers; Susan van den Hof; Chantal Bem Reusken; Jacco Wallinga

doi:10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.6.2200042

Shorter serial intervals in SARS-CoV-2 cases with Omicron BA.1 variant compared with Delta variant, the Netherlands, 13 to 26 December 2021

Euro Surveill. 2022 Feb;27(6):2200042. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.6.2200042.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Center for Infectious Disease Control, WHO COVID-19 reference laboratory, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
² Saltro Diagnostic Center for Primary Care, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
³ Department of Medical Microbiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
⁴ SYNLAB, Heppignies, Belgium.
⁵ Department of Biomedical Data Sciences, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.

PMID: 35144721
PMCID: PMC8832521
DOI: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.6.2200042

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has a growth advantage over the Delta variant because of higher transmissibility, immune evasion or shorter serial interval. Using S gene target failure (SGTF) as indication for Omicron BA.1, we identified 908 SGTF and 1,621 non-SGTF serial intervals in the same period. Within households, the mean serial interval for SGTF cases was 0.2-0.6 days shorter than for non-SGTF cases. This suggests that the growth advantage of Omicron is partly due to a shorter serial interval.

Keywords: COVID-19; Incubation period; Omicron variant; SARS-CoV-2; serial interval; transmission pairs.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Humans
Netherlands
SARS-CoV-2*

Supplementary concepts

SARS-CoV-2 variants