Cyprus finds Covid-19 infections that combine Delta and Omicron

“There are currently omicron and delta co-infections and we found this strain that is a combination of these two,” Kostrikis said in an interview with Sigma TV Friday. The discovery was named “deltacron” due to the identification of omicron-like genetic signatures within the delta genomes, he said.

Kostrikis and his team have identified 25 such cases and the statistical analysis shows that the relative frequency of the combined infection is higher among patients hospitalised due to Covid-19 as compared to non-hospitalised patients. The sequences of the 25 deltacron cases were sent to GISAID, the international database that tracks changes in the virus, on January 7.

“We will see in the future if this strain is more pathological or more contagious or if it will prevail” over delta and omicron, he said. But his personal view is that this strain will also be displaced by the highly contagious omicron variant.

Other scientists have speculated that Kostrikis’s findings are a result of laboratory contamination. But he told Bloomberg in an emailed statement Sunday that the cases he has identified “indicate an evolutionary pressure to an ancestral strain to acquire these mutations and not a result of a single recombination event.”

What’s more, the samples were processed in multiple sequencing procedures in more than one country. And at least one sequence from Israel deposited in a global database exhibits genetic characteristics of deltacron, he said.

“These findings refute the undocumented statements that deltacron is a result of a technical error,” Kostrikis said.

Viral genes determine the forms of proteins that perform a number of specific tasks. Omicron and delta each have mutations in the spike protein that affect their ability to enter human cells, with omicron becoming more infectious as a result.

Recombinant forms of viruses can arise when there are multiple variants of a pathogen circulating, said Nick Loman, a microbial genomics professor at England’s University of Birmingham who studies the coronavirus. While a recombinant form of delta and omicron wouldn’t be a complete surprise, the finding from Cyprus is more likely a “technical artifact” that arose in the process of sequencing the viral genome, he said.

Cypriot Health Minister Michael Hadjipantela said Sunday that the new variant isn’t of concern, and more details will be given at a news conference this week, Philenews reported.