as dub’deltacron’, the new COVID-19 strain that combines symptoms of both the Delta variant and the Omicron variant, has been found in Cyprus.
As Deltacron is trending online, many experts believe that it is not the real COVID-19 version. This comes at a time when the world is in the grip of Omicron, a new strain of SARS-CoV-2.
Virologist Tom Peacock said on social media that DeltaCron may not be a real version, but is likely the result of contamination.
“So when new versions come through the sequencing lab, contamination is not uncommon (very small amounts of liquid can cause this) – usually these apparently contaminated sequences are not reported by major media outlets,” he explained.
“Recombinants are certainly worth keeping an eye on and will almost certainly be found eventually, this particular example almost certainly contamination,” he wrote.
Physician-scientist Eric Topol called the DeltaCron a ‘scarient’ rather than a type. “The new subtype of ‘scarient’ which isn’t even the real form, but scares a lot of people, unnecessarily,” he said.
It may be noted that Deltacron is not an official name. Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus, called the strain a ‘deltachron’.
“Currently there are omicron and delta co-infections and we have found this strain which is a combination of these two,” Kostriakis said in an interview with Sigma TV on Friday. The discovery was named “Deltakron” due to the identification of a geneticist such as Omicron. signatures within the delta genome, he said.
Kostrikis and his team have identified 25 such cases and statistical analysis shows that the relative frequency of combined infections is higher in patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 than in non-hospitalized patients.
Sequences of 25 DeltaCron cases were sent to GISAID, the international database that tracks changes in the virus, on January 7.
“We will see in the future whether this strain is more pathological or more infectious or if it will prevail”, he said. But his personal view is that this strain will also be displaced by the highly infectious Omicron type.
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