The United Kingdom’s health security agency said it detected a first case of “Deltacron” hybrid contamination in a person contaminated by the COVVI-19. The variant was classified in the list of changes “under surveillance” and “under investigation”.
Detected for the first time in Cyprus, in early January by Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biology at the University of Cyprus, this hybrid variant is a combination of Delta and Omicron variants.
Maria Van Kerkhove, who directed the fight against COVIR to the World Health Organization (WHO) had however questioned this discovery, believing that it was surely contamination during the sequencing.
Contamination to the hybrid variant “Deltacron”, identified by the British authorities, would therefore be the first case formalized in the world. British health authorities believe that the patient in question has been contaminated both by the variant Delta and by the omicron variant. The virus then bears the mutations of the two variants.
“Deltacron” was put under surveillance by the United Kingdom’s health security agency insofar as one does not yet know its degree of dangerousness and contagiousness.
