Deltacron becoming a variant of concern, cases in UK being monitored

Another coronavirus variant, formed from the merger of Delta and Omicron, has emerged as a cause of concern for global health experts, with a number of cases being found in the United Kingdom.

Called Deltacron, the hybrid variant shows the characteristics of both Delta and Omicron strains, the UK’s health security agency (UKSHA) said, adding that it is being monitored..

Deltacron was first identified last year by Leonidos Kostrikis, a researcher in the University of Cyprus, who said his team identified 25 cases of Deltacron.

Kostrikis said the strain has Omicron-like genetic signatures within the Delta genome.

Also read: Now Deltacron found infecting people in Cyprus

However, researchers across the globe refused to believe him, with many saying that it was a “lab error” and a “contamination”.

Kostrikis however told Bloomberg that the new strain Deltacron “indicates an evolutionary pressure to an ancestral strain to acquire these mutations and not a result of a single recombination event”, and also that it spreads faster than both Delta and Omicron.

The SARS-COV-2 virus, which was the initial cause of the Covid-19 disease, has undergone several mutations since it was first discovered in late 2019.

The UKSHA however has not revealed how severe Deltacron will be or how quickly it will spread.