Following the discovery of Delta and Omicron variants, a novel coronavirus strain known as 'Deltacron' has been discovered in Cyprus.
According to Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus and head of the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology, a strain of Covid-19 that mixes delta and omicron was discovered in Cyprus.
'There are now omicron and delta co-infections, and we discovered this strain that is a combo of these two,' Kostrikis explained to Sigma TV on Friday. The finding was dubbed 'deltacron' after the discovery of omicron-like genetic markers inside delta genomes.
Kostrikis and his colleagues discovered 25 such instances, and statistical analysis suggests that the relative incidence of the combined infection is greater among Covid-19-hospitalized patients than among non-hospitalized individuals. On January 7, the sequences of the 25 deltacron instances were transmitted to GISAID, a worldwide database that records viral alterations.
