Health experts have dismissed claims that a new Covid variant named ‘Deltacron’ has emerged that is a hybrid of the Delta and Omicron strains.
A strain with Omicron-like genetic signatures within the Delta genomes has been found in Cyprus, Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus, announced this weekend.
Speaking to Sigma TV, he added that his team has identified 25 cases but it is still too early to assess its potential impact.
Eleven patients were already hospitalised while the 14 others were not, it was claimed.
But scientists were skeptical of the announcement after ‘Deltacron’ trended on social media. They believe contamination in the lab is likely to blame.
Infectious-diseases physician Dr Krutika Kuppalli, who works at the World Health Organisation, simply said ‘Deltacron is not real’.
Writing on Twitter, she said: ‘Deltacron is not real and is likely due to sequencing artifact (lab contamination of Omicron sequence fragments in a Delta specimen).
‘Let’s not merge of names of infectious diseases and leave it to celebrity couples.’
Meanwhile, Imperial College virologist Dr Tom Peacock said: ‘The Cypriot “Deltacron” sequences reported by several large media outlets look to be quite clearly contamination – they do not cluster on a phylogenetic tree and have a whole Artic primer sequencing amplicon of Omicron in an otherwise Delta backbone.’
He added: ‘Delta sequences with strange mutations in amplicon 72 have been turning up for ages (for example Delta + Mu NTD insertion) however, they always show this non-monophyletic pattern and are nearly always more easily explained by this primer issue exacerbating very low-level contam.’
It comes after extremely infectious new variant Omicron sparked record case numbers across the UK, and new restrictions in every nation but England.
As of Sunday evening, the UKHSA has no new variants under surveillance and is not concerned about the reports from Cyprus, The Telegraph reports.
Global health expert Dr Boghuma Kabisen Titanji has also shared her doubts about the claims, telling the public ‘please interpret with caution’.
She said: ‘The information currently available is pointing to contamination of a sample as opposed to true recombination of #delta and #omicron variants.’
She added: ‘With transmission levels of #SARSCoV2 at all time highs globally, it is likely that recombination is occurring and may rise to levels that we start picking up these events more frequently. Will this lead to more concerning variants? That is possible but nobody knows.
‘The best thing we can do besides worrying about it and coining variant names that sound like a “Transformers” villain, is ensuring that vaccines are available to everyone and combining vaccination with other strategies that give the virus fewer opportunities to spread.’
Metro has contacted the UK Health Security Agency for comment.
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