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Researchers reported that they now have solid evidence regarding the first confirmed case of “Deltacron,” though it is not believed to be considered a cause of concern as the number of vaccines and people with natural immunity continue to rise across the globe.
The “Deltacron” variant had previously been suspected in several countries, but scientists in Paris submitted a full genomic sequence on Tuesday, March 8 to the international COVID-19 database that confirmed the case.
It has been confirmed in at least 17 patients in the US and Europe, researchers noted.
According to reports, the “backbone" of the “Deltacron” strain is the Delta variant, while the spike, which latches on to humans, is comprised of Omicron.
While many were initially concerned that the “Deltracron” variant would combine Delta’s deadliness and Omicron’s highly-infectious nature, researchers said that there is now substantial immunity to guard against both variants, so it is not believed to be a larger threat in the same way the previous two strains became dominant and led to a spike in new cases.
"This pandemic is not taking a break, despite the fact that we have this war, despite the fact that many countries are facing challenges,” Herkhove said during a recent WHO briefing. Unfortunately, this virus will take opportunities to continue to spread."
Officials noted that the confirmed “Deltacron” case has been traced back to the beginning of January, and if it were to rapidly spread and become the dominant strain of the virus, it would have done so by now.
“We have known that recombinant events can occur, in humans or animals, with multiple circulating variants of #SARSCoV2," WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan posted on Twitter. “ (We) need to wait for experiments to determine the properties of this virus. Importance of sequencing, analytics & rapid data sharing as we deal with this pandemic.”
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