Reported ‘deltacron’ likely not actual variant, virologist says – Florence, South Carolina

(KXAN) —The reported new variant of COVID-19 discovered by Cyprus researchers is said to be a combination of both Delta and Omicron variants — informally called “Deltacron”. increase.

Bloomberg News Leondios Kostrikis, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus, reported on Saturday that he discovered a gene signature like Omicron in the delta genome.

Kostrikis and his team say they have found 25 similar cases. On Friday, researchers told the Cyprus Sigma TV Network that they would “see in the future whether this strain is more pathological or more contagious,” but he said that Omicron was the ultimate dominant strain. He added that he believes it will continue to exist.

However, some experts suspect a suspicious new variant — evidence that it is likely to be laboratory contamination between Delta and Omicron. In addition, as explained by Dr. Tom Peacock, a virologist at the British Imperial Infectious Diseases Agency, these are very likely to be coinfections of the two strains.

“Small update” Peacock tweeted On Saturday, “The” Deltacron “sequence of Cyprus reported by some large media outlets appears to be clearly contaminated. It does not cluster into the phylogenetic tree, but otherwise has the entire Omicron Artic Primer Sequence Amplicon on the Delta backbone. “

Peacock further explained that contamination is fairly common when new variants are sequenced in the lab. He states that even “very small amounts of liquid” can cause contamination.

Before the new variant is classified, he says the suspicious strain should first be detected in several other laboratories.

Back in November, Peacock warned earlier about the unnamed Omicron variant of the time. Classification Spreads quickly and tells Parents “Incredibly large numbers of spike mutations suggest that this can really be a concern.”

Peacock also said he was questioning the timing of the so-called “Deltacron”. “Recombinants” usually do not appear until the weeks or months when the two strains circulate with each other. He added that the recombinant would eventually be found, but in this case it was “almost certainly” contaminated.

“It’s worth adding at the end,” writes Peacock. “Much of what we understand about what makes Delta more contagious / infectious is what Omicron already has.”)

Meanwhile, Cyprus researchers have sent their findings to GISAID, a global virus database.

There are currently an average of over 600,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day in the United States. CNBC analysis Data from Johns Hopkins University. This is a 72% increase from the previous week, a record number for the entire pandemic.