• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Scientists Confirm New Covid-19 Variant Called Deltacron

Home> News

Updated 09:59 22 Mar 2022 GMTPublished 21:08 21 Mar 2022 GMT

Scientists Confirm New Covid-19 Variant Called Deltacron

The new strain has already been found across the world, including in Europe, the US, and Australia.

Rachel Lang

Rachel Lang

A hybrid variant of Covid-19 has been detected across Europe and the US.

The mutated version is a combination of both the Delta and Omicron strains, forming a hybrid version of the virus.

Scientists believe the mutation - which they've named Deltacron - may have emerged from a person infected with both strains at once, allowing them to become a human petrie dish.

Deltacron has been found in Paris.
Victor Joly/Alamy

Advert

Initial research into the new variant revealed it is similar to the Delta strain, but has some nasty characteristics of the Omicron mutation, sparking fears that Deltacron could now be a potent, highly infections combination of the two strains.

Associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Louisiana State University Jeremy Kamil explained to NBC: “Delta basically grabbed Omicron’s spike protein.

“This is essentially Delta trying to hang on by plagiarising from Omicron. The genomes get a bit acrobatic, and pieces can jump and then recombine together.

“It's like if you had 70 printouts of an identical manuscript on your desk and then an office fan turns on and blows things around, and you're trying to put everything back in order. Viruses are no different from that.”

Dr Kamil said Deltacron was like the Delta variant getting a software upgrade while wearing Omicron’s invisibility cloak.

Advert

The World Health Organisation's Maria Van Kerkhove said the new hybrid variant will likely pop up in more and more countries in the next few weeks.

Alamy

"As we look more, as we do more sequencing, it is possible that this recombinant virus will be detected in other countries, but it is circulating as we understand at very low levels,” Dr Van Kerkhove said.

Deltacron has been detected across the UK and Europe, with 30 cases in the UK, 36 in France, eight in Denmark, and one each in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, according to GISAID.

So far, samples of Deltacron have been identified mostly in Europe.

Advert

GISAID, a body that researches and tracks influenza and Covid strains, have reported there have been 36 samples of Deltacron reported in France, eight in Denmark and one each in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

This is the first time a hybrid of two major strains of coronavirus has been discovered.

A supposed Delta-Omicron hybrid was initially reported by researchers in Cyprus in January, but wound up being the result of contamination in the lab.

Featured Image Credit: ames Jiao/STANCA SANDA/Alamy

Topics: Health, Australia, News

Rachel Lang
Rachel Lang

Rachel Lang is a Digital Journalist at LADbible. During her career, she has interviewed Aussie PM Malcolm Turnbull in the lead up to the 2016 federal election, ran an editorial campaign on the war in Yemen, and reported on homelessness in the lead-up to Harry and Meghan’s wedding in Windsor. She also once wrote a yarn on the cheese and wine version of Fyre Festival.

X

@rlangjournalist

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

9 hours ago
10 hours ago
  • 9 hours ago

    Everything we know about Texas floods that have killed at least 121 as Trump arrives at disaster site

    The President and the First Lady have headed to the state one week after the horror floods wreaked havoc

    News
  • 9 hours ago

    Scientists make surprising discovery at what lies under Antarctic ice sheet after its been covered in ice for 34 million years

    It could help scientists predict the future of the ice sheet

    News
  • 10 hours ago

    Paedophile to be surgically castrated after raping girl, 6, in nation's shock new punishment tactic

    It comes a year after a law was passed in Madagascar permitting the controversial punishment

    News
  • 10 hours ago

    Scientists think they've worked out what unknown interstellar object in our solar system is

    It came from outside our own solar system

    News
  • Aussies Who Refused To Get Covid-19 Vaccine Believe Their Anti-Vaxx Stance Is A 'Disability'
  • World Health Organization Reveals Covid-19 Death Toll Is Almost Triple Official Number
  • Thousands Of Aussie Teachers Will Be Sacked Today Because They Haven't Received Covid-19 Booster
  • Doctor Says Those Who Haven’t Yet Caught Covid-19 Clearly Don’t Have Any Friends