Leonidos Kostrikis, A scientist in Cypress claims to have found a new variant of COVID-19 that he calls deltacron, which combines characteristics of both the delta and omicron variants. He is the University of Cyprus professor who runs the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology. He claims multiple tests show what’s called a recombinant form of the virus, something that happens when there are several variants of a virus.
Kostrikis said deltacron infections are higher among patients hospitalized for COVID than among non-hospitalized patients. He also said samples were processed for genetic sequencing in more than one country, including in Israel.
Of course if this is true it is very bad news since the super transmissible Omicron variants could be combined with the more deadly Delta variant.
However, other scientists think lab contamination is the more likely explanation for this new phenomenon, though one scientist interviewed by Bloomberg said a deltacron variant would not be completely surprising. Cypress’ health minister said more details would be given at a news conference this week, but as of right now deltacron was not of concern as recognized by the World Health Organization.