The Deltacron variant of the coronavirus has characteristics of both Delta and Omicron strains.
A new variant of the coronavirus (Covid-19) has emerged as a cause for concern among global health experts. The hybrid variant, named Deltacron because it exhibits characteristics of both Delta and Omicron strains, was found in samples in the United Kingdom (UK), according to the country. health security agency.
Mutant hybrid variants are being monitored following the discovery of the cases, UKHSA said.
To date, there is no official word from the UKHSA on how contagious Deltacron is, or how severe its symptoms can be.
Delta leads the second wave of deadly infections in India and Omicron is responsible for the third wave. But looking at the daily drop in case numbers, some experts hope Deltacron won’t be as devastating as previous variants.
The Deltacron variant was first discovered by a researcher in Cyprus late last year. Leonidos Kostrikis, of the University of Cyprus, claims that his team has identified 25 Deltacron cases.
Sequences of 25 Deltacron cases were submitted to GISAID, an international database that tracks changes in the virus, on January 7, 2022.
According to Kostrikis, the hybrid strain has an Omicron-like genetic signature in the Delta genome.
However, there was a global outcry to his finding, with many leading publications dismissing Deltacron as “lab error”. Thomas Peacock, a research associate at Imperial College London’s Barclay Laboratory, which focuses on coronavirus research, said on Twitter that Deltacron “appears to be quite visibly contaminated”.
But Kostrikis defended his claim and asserted that the new strain is actually a cross between the Delta and Omicron variants, and spreads faster than the two. In an emailed statement to Bloomberg, the The Cyprus researcher said that the cases he has identified “reveal an evolutionary pressure on an ancestral strain to acquire these mutations and not result of a single recombination event”.
The original form of the SARS-COV-2 virus, since its appearance in late 2019, has undergone several mutations. The Omicron variant, which is now the dominant strain in many countries, has more than 30 mutations in it that give rise to protein spikes. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this causes the virus to spread rapidly.
Omicron, scientifically known as B.1.1.529, has been designated a variant of concern by WHO. It was first discovered in South Africa last November.
