In Cyprus, a combination of the two variants Delta and Omicron has been detected by scientists, as reported on Sunday Le Figaro, which quoted the Bloomberg news agency. According to these sources, several people have been infected with this combination of the two variants currently dominant in the world. “There are currently Omicron and Delta co-infections and we have found this strain which is a combination of the two cases,” said Professor of Biology at the University of Cyprus Leondios Kostrikis.
This new variant, which is said to have “the genetic signature of Omicron and the genomes of Delta”, has been nicknamed “Deltacron”. According to information from the Cyprus Mail, cited by Bloomberg, 25 cases have already been detected.
Still according to Professor Leondios Kostrikis, “the frequency of mutations was higher among those who are in the hospital, which can lead to think that there is a correlation between Deltacron and hospitalizations”. “We will see in the future if this strain is more pathological or more contagious or if it will prevail,” he added.
A laboratory error?
Should we be worried? Maybe not. Because this discovery could in fact be the result of improper handling in his laboratory. According to Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, “the Cypriot ‘Deltacron’ sequences that several mainstream media are talking about seem to be quite clearly a contamination, they do not cluster on a phylogenetic tree,” as he explains on Twitter. As written Release, it would therefore perhaps be samples of patients contaminated by Omicron and others of patients contaminated by Delta who would have ended up in the same analysis by mistake, which would have suggested a fusion of the two variants.
So new variant or false alarm? Nothing has yet been confirmed, an answer probably in the coming days.
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