They found the “deltacron” variant in Cyprus, a mixture of Delta and Omicron

Cypriot authorities reported that they had detected 25 cases of infection with a combined version of the delta and omicron variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which they called “deltacron”.

There is currently a co-infection between omicron and delta. “We found a variant that is a mixture of both,” explained Leondios Kostrikis, a professor of biology at the University of Cyprus and director of the Laboratory of Molecular Biotechnology and Virology.

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Kostrikis explained in statements to Signa TV that the new variant has the genetic signature of the omicron variant and the genomes of the delta variant, according to the news agency. Bloomberg.

Kostrikis and his team have so far identified 25 cases of “deltacron” and highlighted that they are more frequent in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 than in out-of-hospital positives.

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On January 7, samples from 25 discovered patients were sent to the international GISAID database of the Pasteur Institute, which is responsible for publishing the official sequencing of new variants of influenza and the coronavirus.

He noted that “we will see in the future whether this variant is pathological or infectious or whether it will be imposed” on delta and omicron, although in his opinion it is likely to be overshadowed by the omicron variant because it is more infectious.