Coronavirus: Reports claim emergence of COVID Deltacron cases in UK; here's what you need to know about it

As reports of COVID cases due to the Deltacron variant in the United Kingdom (UK) have come to the fore new questions have started arising about the two year old global pandemic.

Deltacron is a combination of both Delta and Omicron variants of the coronavirus. It is called Deltacron, as it comprises Omicron-like genetic signatures within the Delta genomes.

"The super-mutant Deltacron is thought to have evolved in a patient who caught both variants at the same time but it is not clear if it was imported or originated in Britain. UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) officials also don't know how infectious or severe the newly evolved virus is or whether it will impact vaccine performance," reported the Daily Mail. A source at the UKHSA insisted officials were 'not concerned' by the variant because case numbers are 'low', it added.

The new variant was revealed in the UKHSA's weekly variant surveillance report, as per reports.

Touted to be a laboratory error earlier, the Deltacron variant has become a subject of concern in the last few days after an international media released reports of people getting infected with it in the UK.

In January 2022 when the first case of Deltacron was reported from Cyprus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had said it to be a lab contamination. Many experts had also said that it may be a result of contamination sequencing artifacts of genomes.

So far nothing has been found out about the symptoms of this variant. Prior to the cases reported in the UK, 25 cases were found in Cyprus in which 11 of the Deltacron infected individuals were earlier hospitalized for COVID-19 and the rest were the general population.

On the severity of Deltacron, Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia told the media that this 'shouldn't pose too much of a threat'.

'It doesn't fill me with dread. The reason is because, at present, both Delta and most versions of Omicron... are falling quickly and Delta is almost extinct in this country. Deltacron will have shared antigens from both Delta and Omicron and we already have high levels of immunity to those. So in theory it should not pose too much of a threat. But nobody can predict everything with certainty, but at the moment I am not overly worried," he told Daily Mail.

While nothing much has been said about the symptoms and the transmission rate of the variant, its link with Omicron is giving an impression of high transmission rate. No official information is available to confirm the nature, transmission rate, risk factor and severity of the variant.

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus was said to have a high transmissibility rate among all the variants of concern.

In January 2022, the WHO had said it to be a laboratory error. There has been no update on the variant from the WHO so far.

A coronavirus variant is said to be a variant of concern when it exhibits increase in transmissibility or detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology; or increase in virulence or change in clinical disease presentation; or decrease in effectiveness of public health and social measures or available diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics.

So far 5 coronavirus variants of concern have been identified: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron. Two others, Lambda and Mu are variants of interest.

The Omicron wave has waned. However it is still far from being endemic. “The Covid-19 infection is barely two years old. We are still studying its patterns," said Dr Samiran Pande head epidemiology, ICMR to the media.

As on February 16, 2022, India reports 30,615 Covid cases, 514 deaths in 24 hours. Active case tally stands at 3.7 lakh. Daily positivity rate at present is 2.45%