Is the new variant 'Deltacron' really a cause of concern? Experts say it is probably not real

New Delhi: A researcher in Cyprus had reportedly discovered a new variant called Deltacron. The new strain of the coronavirus is said to be the result of the genetic fusion of the Delta and Omicron viral variants. 

The new strain, which is touted to be more powerful and deadly than any before, was discovered by Leondios Kostrikis, Ph.D., of the University of Cyprus Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology. At the time when the entire world is in grip of Omicron, reports of this apparently new variant have triggered fresh apprehension. 

Many experts, however, have opined that it is not a real variant. For instance, Virologist Tom Peacock said on social media that Deltacron may not be an actual variant, but possibly a result of contamination. "So when new variants come through sequencing lab, contamination isn't that uncommon (very very tiny volumes of liquid can cause this) - just usually these fairly clearly contaminated sequences are not reported by major media outlets," he explained.

Physician-scientist Eric Topol termed Deltacron as a 'scariant', instead of a variant. "New subtype of 'scariant' that isn't even a real variant but scares a lot of people, unnecessarily," he tweeted.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday said that the phrase, "Deltacron", which suggests that Delta and Omicron have combined, is not really a thing. 

"In fact, what we think that it's a result of contamination that has happened during the sequencing process," WHO technical lead of Covid-19 Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said.

Kostrikis said Deltacron infection is higher among patients hospitalized for Covid-19 than among non-hospitalized patients, which rules out the contamination hypothesis. "What's more, the samples were processed in multiple sequencing procedures in more than one country. And at least one sequence from Israel deposited in a global database exhibits genetic characteristics of Deltacron," he said.

"These findings refute the undocumented statements that deltacron is a result of a technical error," Kostrikis said.

Notably, Deltacron is not any official name. Before this, the word Delmicron became popular to denote a combination of Delta and Omicron. These are not official names given by WHO. Neither are these officially acknowledged variants.