A new variant of the coronavirus has worried health experts around the world. The name of this variant is Deltacron. It is a hybrid strain consisting of Delta and Omicron, which was first discovered by researchers in Cyprus last month. At that time, scientists thought it was a technical mistake in the lab, but now some cases have been reported in Britain.
At present, the UK Health Security Agency of Britain is keeping an eye on this variant. According to him, this strain of Corona is being investigated. No information has been given by the agency about how contagious this variant is and what are its symptoms.
While the Delta variant has proven to be extremely lethal across the globe, Omicron's infection spread is many times higher than all other variants found so far. Recently India has faced the wrath of Omicron. Both these variants have been declared 'Variants of Concern' by the World Health Organization (WHO).
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How was DeltaCron discovered?
This strain was reported by researchers from the University of Cyprus on 7 January. He named it 'Deltakron'. It was discovered by a team led by Leondios Kostrikis, Head of the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology and Professor of Biological Sciences.
At that time, there were 25 cases of DeltaCron in Cyprus. According to Professor Kostrikis, out of 25 people in Cyprus in whom the new strain was found, 11 people were admitted to the hospital after being corona positive. At the same time, the remaining 14 people were who were Kovid positive but were not admitted to the hospital.
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Why was this discovery criticized?
A month ago, scientists around the world argued that Omicron could not combine with another variant so quickly to form a new variant. Virologist Tom Peacock of Imperial College in London said DeltaCron was a "technical mistake in the lab", not a new strain.
In response, Professor Kostrikis dismissed DeltaCron's claim of being a "lab error". He said that deltacron samples had been genome sequenced in more than one country and that at least one sequence from Israel submitted to the global database showed deltacron's genetic properties.
How dangerous can DeltaCron be?
The study on this variant is in the early stages. Talking to the Daily Mail, Dr. Paul Hunter of Britain told that we should not be at much risk from DeltaCron because most people have got the vaccine and booster dose. Immunity is already developed in the UK against Delta and Omicron. At present, there is nothing to worry about this variant.