Cyprus reportedly discovers a Covid variant that combines omicron and delta
Bloomberg News reported on Saturday that a researcher in Cyprus has discovered a strain of coronavirus combining the delta and omicron variants.
Bloomberg said Leondios Kostrikis, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus, called the strain a "deltachron" because of its omicron-like genetic signature within the delta genome.
According to the report, Kostrikis and his team have found 25 cases of the virus so far. It is too early to tell whether there are more cases of tension or what the implications might be.
"We will see in the future whether this strain is more pathological or more contagious or if it will prevail," Kostrikis said in an interview with Sigma TV on Friday. He believes that Omicron will also overtake DeltaCron, he said.
According to Bloomberg, the researchers sent their findings this week to GISAID, an international database that tracks viruses.
The DeltaCron variant comes as Omicron continues to spread rapidly around the world, leading to an increase in COVID-19 cases. The US is reporting a seven-day average of more than 600,000 new cases per day, according to a CNBC analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University on Friday. This is an increase of 72% from last week and a pandemic record.
