The variant of Covid that combines Delta and Omicron identified in Cyprus has been called "Deltacron" for now. This was reported by the Bloomberg agency, citing Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus and head of the Laboratory of biotechnology and molecular virology.
"Currently - the expert told Sigma Tv - there are Omicron and Delta co-infections and we have discovered that this strain is a combination of these two variants". Kostrikis and his team identified 25 of these cases, and statistical analysis shows that the relative frequency of combined infection is higher among patients admitted to hospital for Covid than among non-hospitalized patients.
The Deltacron sequences were sent to Gisaid, the international database that tracks virus changes, two days ago. "We will see in the future whether this strain is more pathological or more contagious or whether it will prevail" over Delta and Omicron, the researcher concluded.
(Unioneonline / ss)