The severity of the first 207 infections with the SARS‐CoV‐2 Omicron BA.2 variant, in Marseille, France, December 2021–February 2022

of ‐ CoV ‐ 2) diagnoses at in the BA.2 variant (B.1.1.529.2) accounting for 10.7% of cases which a 2.4 ‐ fold as compared to the The Omicron BA.2 variant has in other and in The objective of this study is to describe the first 207 Omicron BA.2 cases diagnosed the Infection which manages the vast majority of patients in the area, and to provide early information on its severity, in comparison with that of the Omicron BA.1 variant All available SARS ‐ CoV ‐ 2 positive results obtained by our laboratory between December 27, 2021 (the date of the first identification of an Omicron BA.2 case) and February 14, 2022 led to genotyping using real ‐ time reverse transcription ‐ quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and next ‐ generation genome sequencing (NGS). Briefly, qPCR assays specific to variants included detection of spike mutations L452R, K417N, E484K, and/or P681H (Thermo Fisher Scientific), combined with the targeting of viral genes ORF1, N (nucleocapsid), and S (spike) with the TaqPath COVID ‐ 19 assay (Thermo Fisher Scientific). NGS used the Illumina CovidSeq or Artic combined with Oxford NanoporeTechnologies procedures and genome assembly and analyses were severe respiratory *Statistical analyses The Pearson's χ 2 test and Fisher's exact test, as appropriate, were applied to analyze the categorical variables. The Student's t ‐ test was used to compare the difference in the mean of quantitative variables. Qualitative variables were presented by percentage. The univariable and multivariable (logistic regression) was conducted to evaluate the association between multiple factors (age, gender, vaccination status, and Omicron variants) and clinical outcomes (hospitalization and death) of COVID ‐ 19 patients. We did not carry out an analysis of transfer to intensive care unit outcomes because of low effectiveness. The results were presented by odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval. p <0.05 was considered statistically significant.