Covid-19: Once dismissed as a hoax, Deltacron strain may just be a reality

A new coronavirus variant in the UK has emerged as a headache for health experts. The hybrid Deltacron variant exhibits characteristics of both the deadly Delta variant and the highly transmissible Omicron strain.

The UK Health Security Agency is monitoring the variant after it was found in some samples. Experts believe the new strain might have evolved in patients who caught both the Omicron and the Delta variants at the same time, according to reports in the British media.

However, the UK Health Security Agency is yet to make any comment about how infectious the strain is or how severe symptoms can be. It is also not clear if the UK case was imported or originated in the country.

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Reports in the UK media suggest the health security agency is still uncertain about how the strain would impact vaccine performance.

The Delta variant was behind the deadly second Covid-19 wave in India, while the Omicron caused the third wave. However, health experts believe that the falling number of daily caseload additions suggest that Deltacron would not be devastating.

The Deltacron strain was discovered in Cyprus in late 2021, with the researchers claiming that they had identified 25 cases. The sequences were sent to GISAID, the international database tracking changes in the virus, in January. However, it was later dismissed as a case of sample contamination.

Leonidos Kostrikis of the University of Cyprus, whose team detected the strain, however, defended his findings and said the new strain was a hybrid and spread faster than both the parent strains.

The original SARS-CoV-2 virus emerged in late 2019 and has since undergone several mutations. The Omicron variant, which caused the recent spurt in cases in several countries, underwent 30 mutations in its spike protein. The World Health Organization suggests that these mutations allowed the strain to spread rapidly.