Covid-19: “Deltacron”, the new variant that is starting to worry

In France, the Omicron variant is sweeping the country, but the Minister of Health has repeated it: Delta is still very present and it is he, for the moment, who is participating in the pressure weighing on hospitals. Because Delta is, according to the latest studies, the variant which remains the most dangerous at present. But as reported Le Figaro based on Bloomberg, it is a possible new variant that worries, namely a combination between Delta and Omicron. And it was in Cyprus that he was reportedly spotted.

According to the professor of biology at the University of Cyprus, Leondios Kostrikis, there are “currently Omicron and Delta co-infections”, the researchers having found “this strain which is a combination of the two”. According to him, this possible new variant could have “the genetic signature of Omicron and the genomes of Delta”, hence the advanced name of “Deltacron”.

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Doubts expressed by other researchers

In this interview with the Sigma TV channel, the professor says that 25 cases have already been detected on the island. The infection is also more frequent in patients hospitalized for Covid-19 than in people not hospitalized. According to our colleagues from Figaro, samples were sent to the Institut Pasteur for analysis. Professor Kostrikis did not go much further in his explanations, contenting himself with throwing: “We will see in the future whether this strain is more pathological or more contagious, or whether it will prevail”.

But at the same time, other scientists who have studied the genetic sequences of the alleged 25 cases, cast as much doubts on the professor’s results, details Release. For example, Imperial College London virologist Tom Peacock argues that “the Cypriot ‘Deltacron’ sequences […] seem to be quite clearly a contamination. They do not come together on a phylogenetic tree. “It could be, according to him, that the samples of people contaminated at Delta and Omicron could have been mixed in the laboratory. For his part, Leondios Kostrikis replied by assuring that he There was indeed a new strain of Covid-19 that combines the characteristics of the two variants.