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Cyprus has discovered a possible new variant of the virus that results from a mixture of two different types of SARS-CoV-2: delta and omicron. However, there is no certainty about the validity of this new variant and many experts believe it may be due to lab error.
The information was provided by Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biology at the University of Cyprus and head of the Laboratory for Biotechnology and Molecular Virology, to Cyprus’ Sigma TV station, citing Bloomberg. “There are currently Omicron and Delta co-infections and we have discovered this variant that combines the two,” he said.
So the adopted name was “Deltacron”. Kostrikis and the team have already identified 25 cases and are investigating whether the new strain is more dangerous or contagious than the rest. Samples collected in Cyprus are now being evaluated for authenticity.
However, many experts have publicly downplayed this alleged new variant, saying it is a case of contamination, as has been the case with Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London.
Small update: Cypriot ‘deltacron’ sequences reported by several large media outlets appear to be clearly contaminated – they do not cluster on the phylogenetic tree and have full amplicons of omicron sequences in the delta backbone.
– Tom Peacock (@PeacockFlu) January 8, 2022
Eric Topol, a molecular biologist at the Scripps Research Translational Institute, as reported by CNN Portugal, also attributed little or no relevance to this information. The biologist posted on Twitter, in a play of words between the word “fear” (“fear”) and the word “alternative” (“alternative”).
indeed. A new sub-genre of horror that isn’t even a real variant but frightens a lot of people, unnecessarily
Eric Topol (@EricTopol) January 9, 2022
