Gandolfini, IlariaCrespo Barrio, MartaHellemans, RachelMaggiore, UmbertoMariat, ChristopheMjoen, GeirOniscu, Gabriel C.Peruzzi, LiciaSever, Mehmet SükrüWatschinger, BrunoHilbrands, Luuk2022-11-252022-11-252022Gandolfini I, Crespo M, Hellemans R, Maggiore U, Mariat C, Mjoen G, et al. Issues regarding COVID-19 in kidney transplantation in the ERA of the Omicron variant: a commentary by the ERA Descartes Working Group. Nephrol Dial Transplant. 2022 Sep 22; 37(10): 1824-9. DOI: 10.1093/ndt/gfac2030931-0509http://hdl.handle.net/10230/55006The Omicron variant, which has become the dominant strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) worldwide, brings new challenges to preventing and controlling the infection. Moreover, the widespread implementation of vaccination policies before and after transplantation, and the development of new prophylactic and treatment strategies for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) over the past 12-18 months, has raised several new issues concerning kidney transplant recipients. In this special report, the ERA DESCARTES (Developing Education Science and Care for Renal Transplantation in European States) Working Group addresses several questions related to everyday clinical practice concerning kidney transplant recipients and to the assessment of deceased and live kidney donors: what is the current risk of severe disease and of breakthrough infection, the optimal management of immunosuppression in kidney transplant recipients with COVID-19, the role of passive immunization and the efficacy of antiviral drugs in ambulatory patients, the management of drug-to-drug interactions, safety criteria for the use of SARS-CoV-2-positive donors, issues related to the use of T cell depleting agents as induction treatment, and current recommendations for shielding practices.application/pdfengCopyright © Gandolfini I, Crespo M, Hellemans R, Maggiore U, Mariat C, Mjoen G, et al.2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the ERA. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact moc.puo@snoissimrep.slanruojinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ndt/gfac203COVID-19SARS-CoV-2Antiviral agentsKidney donationKidney transplantationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess