Amid the world is dealing with Delta and Omicron variant of Covid-19, scientists from Cyprus has claimed to find a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 which combines Omicron and Delta variant. The variant has been named “Deltacron”.
Professor at the University of Cyprus and head of the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology, Leondios Kostrikis, interacted with media. He said, “We have found a new variant which shows symptoms as same as Omicron and Delta, from the latest study, reported that the new strain shows a combination of both. For now, this discovery is known as “Deltacron” because of its resemblance with Omicron (genetic signature) and Delta (genome).”
He added that it is uncertain whether this variant will surpass Omicron and Delta. He quoted saying, “This is in the lap of the future if the strain will prevail or not; for now, it is difficult to comment if it is more contagious and more pathological.”
On the other side, he, personally, warned that Deltacron might displace the highly contagious Omicron variant.
Reportedly, so far, Cyprus has reported 25 cases of the Deltacron variant of SARS-CoV-2. On January 7, Leodnios and his team sent their findings to Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID), the international database that tracks viruses.
It is worth mentioning that, to date, none of the international health authorities has recognised the Deltacron variant.
However, many health experts say that it will be too soon to add on Deltacron as the variant of concern. Virologist Tom Peacock shared a ‘small update’ over this new variant on social media and wrote, “Small update: The ‘Deltacron’ sequences reported by several media outlets look to be quite clearly contamination – they do; not cluster on a phylogenetic tree.”
Small update: the Cypriot 'Deltacron' sequences reported by several large media outlets look to be quite clearly contamination – they do not cluster on a phylogenetic tree and have a whole Artic primer sequencing amplicon of Omicron in an otherwise Delta backbone.
— Tom Peacock (@PeacockFlu) January 8, 2022