New Covid Strain ‘Deltacron’

According to Leonodios Kostrikis, a professor of biological sciences at University of Cyprus, a strain of Covid-19 combining delta and omicron was found in Cyprus.

Highlights

• The discovery has been named “deltacron” because of identification of omicron-like genetic signatures within delta genomes.
• The team has identified 25 such cases.
• Its statistical analysis highlights that, relative frequency of combined infection is higher among patients hospitalized due to Covid-19 as compared to non-hospitalized patients.
• The sequences of 25 deltacron cases were sent to GISAID, which is the international database for tracking changes in the virus.
• Out of 25, 11 were already hospitalized patients with Covid while 14 were among general public.

One Mutant Strain

COVID-19 infection usually involves only one mutant strain. However, in extremely rare cases two can attack at the same time. If the strain also infect the same cell, they may be able to swap DNA and combine for forming a new version of the virus.

Hybrid Mutant

In December 2021, Moderna had warned about a hybrid mutant. Moderna feared that hybrid mutant would be worse than the strains currently widely spread worldwide. The researchers also caution that such events, scientifically called ‘recombination events’, are possible. But they require very specific circumstances and coincidence of mostly uncontrollable events.