Nagpur: A new strain of Covid-19, a combination of Delta and Omicron variant was discovered in Cyprus, as per professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus, Leondios Kostrikis.
Kostrikis in an interview claimed that there are currently Omicron and Delta co-infections and found this strain is a combination of these two. The discovered strain has been named as ‘Deltacron’ due to the identification of Omicron-like genetic signatures within the Delta genomes, he added.
According to Kostrikis, the team has identified 25 such cases and the analysis reveals that the relative frequency of the combined infection is higher among the patients hopsitalised due to Covid-19 as compared to the non-hospitalised ones.
The sequences of the Deltacron cases were set to GISAID, an international virus-tracking database. “We will see in the future if this strain is more pathological or more contagious or if it will prevail over Delta and Omicron,” he said.
On the other hand, Virologist Tom Peacock wrote on social media, “So when new variants come through the sequencing lab, contamination isn’t that uncommon (very very tiny volumes of liquid can cause this) – just usually these fairly clearly contaminated sequences are not reported by major media outlets.”
However, ‘Deltacron’ is not the official name given to the strain by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
