Deltacron is for real: Hybrid COVID strain reported in UK, experts on its symptoms, infectivity
Premium- While speaking on Deltacron, WHO had said it's possible for an individual to be infected with different variants of COVID
What was initially touted as lab error, Deltacron is real after all. The first few cases of the hybrid strain of the Omicron and Delta variants of COVID have been reported from the United Kingdom. The UK Health Security Agency, however, said they are yet not worried about it as the cases are low. From its symptoms to infectivity, here is all that you need to know about Deltacron.
What is Deltacron?
There are a few cases reported from the UK where the patient is infected with 2 variants of COVID - Delta and Omicron. A Daily Mail report said, “it is thought to have evolved in a patient who caught both variants at the same time but it is not clear if it was imported or originated in Britain."
Several 'recombinant' variants have been detected in the pandemic, but they have not led to any serious outbreaks, the report also said.
How infectious is Deltacron and what are its symptoms?
UKHSA officials also don't know how infectious or severe the newly evolved virus is, its symptoms or whether it will impact vaccine performance.
However, infectious disease expert professor Paul Hunter said, as quoted by Daily Mail, that it 'shouldn't pose too much of a threat' because the UK has huge levels of immunity against the original Delta and Omicron strains.
'So at the moment I'm not overly worried at the moment. If both Delta and Omicron are falling then, in theory, this [variant] should struggle to take off,' he said.
What WHO said on Deltacron?
Previously, World Health Organisation (WHO) had pointed out that it's possible for an individual to be infected with different variants of SARS-CoV-2. And there have been examples of coinfection, in which people were infected with both influenza and Covid-19 “throughout this pandemic."
"Let's not use words like Deltacron. Please," WHO's Maria Van Kerkhove had tweeted last month. "These words imply combination of viruses/variants and this is not happening.
Earlier, experts have said that an alleged hybrid Covid-19 mutation dubbed "Deltacron" reportedly discovered in a Cyprus lab is most likely the result of lab contamination and not a new worrying variant.
About the recent emergence, UKHSA sources told MailOnline: 'We monitor everything as a matter of course, but we are not particularly anxious about this variant.
'It is on that list just because we are currently looking at it.'
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