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Cyprus Finds Covid-19 Co-Infections That Combine Delta and Omicron - “Deltacron”

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  • Cyprus Finds Covid-19 Co-Infections That Combine Delta and Omicron - “Deltacron”

    January 8, 2022, 9:10 AM CST

    By Georgios Georgiou

    A strain of Covid-19 that combines delta and omicron was found in Cyprus, according to Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus and head of the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology.

    “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 hospitalized due to Covid-19 as compared to non-hospitalized patients. The sequences of the 25 deltacron cases were sent to GISAID, the international database that tracks changes in the virus, on Jan. 7.




  • #2
    What Is 'Deltacron'? Scientist Says COVID Discovery Is New Strain

    BY KHALEDA RAHMAN ON 1/9/22 AT 11:24 AM EST

    ... Some experts have suggested the cases are more likely to be from lab contamination or co-infections of Delta and Omicron.

    Dr. Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College's Department of Infectious Disease, said on Twitter: "The Cypriot 'Deltacron' sequences reported by several large media outlets look to be quite clearly contamination - they do not cluster on a phylogenetic tree and have a whole Artic primer sequencing amplicon of Omicron in an otherwise Delta backbone."

    ..."In this case potentially mixing up small amounts of RNA samples/swab material in the sequencing labs - which then makes it look like the virus has mixed in the real world (when it hasn't) - it happens quite commonly because tiny volumes of liquid can cause this issue...," he wrote.

    But some experts say cases cited are more likely to be the result of lab contamination or co-infections of Delta and Omicron.

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