Deltacron Variant, a combination of Delta and Omicron

Just a mere two months after detection of the highly contagious Omicron Covid-19 variant last November, and the threat of another big lockdown from taking over the world, there is now new evidence that another new variant has now appeared in Cyprus.

This new variant has been named 'Deltacron', for being a combination of the Delta and Omicron variants. According to the professor of Biology at the University of Cyprus, Leondios Kostrikis, there are some people infected with Omicron and Delta, but in the case of this variant known in the Cypriot country, it is "a combination of both". Kostrikis declared that the new variant has "the genetic signature of Omicron and the genomes of Delta."

Confirmed cases in Cyprus

In regards to the new variant, and according to the information provided by the Cypriot Executive, 25 new infections have been reported so far. On the other hand, the director of the Biotechnology and Molecular Virology Laboratory explained that the new variant has been mostly detected in hospitalized patients and very few cases in vaccinated people.

This report comes days after in France, a group of scientists from Marseille reported a variant with more mutations than Omicron, called IHU, and whose first case was detected in the Republic of Congo. According to a study published MedRxiv, this patient returned to France from a trip to Cameroon. At the moment, the potential damage of this variant, as well as its evolution, is still unknown.

At the moment, Omicron registered on Thursday, January 6, the highest number of daily infections in the world, which was 2.3 million, and has forced many countries in the world to adopt new restrictions in order to put a stop to this upward trend of cases.

What does the World Health Organization say?

Regarding the Omicron variant, Tedros Adhanom, general director of the World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement saying that "although Omicron appears to be less severe compared to Delta, especially in those vaccinated, it does not mean that it should be classified as mild."

The most prominent symptoms of Omicron are cough, fatigue, fever, sneezing, muscle pain, runny nose, and headache. Symptoms that differ from those of Delta, since they are less aggressive on the body, although Omicron spreads more quickly.

The Omicron variant has hit hard in different parts of the world. The United States, for example, is the country with the most accumulated cases of COVID-19 as there are on average more than 900,000 new infections and 2,000 deaths a day.

According to the most recent data from Johns Hopkins University, 900,832 new covid-19 infections and 2,615 deaths were registered in the country on Friday, after last Monday the 1 million daily infected people mark was surpassed. Specifically, on that day 1,082,549 new cases were reported, although the numbers may be higher due to the delay in the delivery of data due to the end of the year celebrations.

The total number of infected since the beginning of the pandemic goes up to 6,237,525 and 117,465 deaths.

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