The deltacron variant from Cyprus, the omicron twin from Denmark ... This is how Covid is mutating

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After two years of pandemic, the coronavirus has evolved to overcome its main threats: vaccines and herd immunity. The virus mutates and transforms into new variants, with new, increasingly rapid incubation times and new symptoms, in some cases milder but with greater contagion capacity. After the wave of

, which has already spread widely throughout Europe, new names such as

. This is the last hour of the new variants of the

.

The

authorities have reported 25 cases of Covid associated with a new variant, which they have called deltacron, and which would be a kind of mix between some omicron and other

mutations , but some question this classification.

Professor

, professor of biology at the

and director of the

, argues that cases of

are more frequent among patients hospitalized for

.

Last Friday, the genomic sequences of the

obtained in Cyprus were sent to the international

database of

in Paris.

Nothing is known yet about the characteristics that this composite variant could have: if it will be more contagious, more lethal or, simply, if it will manage to undermine

, which seems quite unlikely given the rapid infection capacity of this variant, which has allowed to prevail over all others.

A laboratory error?

However, other scientists have later suggested that Leonidos Kostrikis' findings are the result of cross-contamination in the laboratory. The professor has refuted the criticism, also recalling that "at least one sequence from

deposited in a global database shows the genetic characteristics of

."

Beyond the discrepancies, it is normal for the virus to change continuously and many mutant sequences are sent to the databases that collect genomes: however, in almost three years of the pandemic there are only five variants reported as "worrying" by the

(WHO) and some of them have disappeared, supplanted mainly by

and

.

The "twin" of omicron

Of great interest is a sister variant of

that may have developed autonomously around the same time and that researchers are monitoring.

To define it, the researchers have created two sublineages of

: BA.1, that is,

, and the new "anomalous" lineage called BA.2.

The alarm has come from

: BA.2 may have become dominant over BA.1.

The country is one of the best in the world in terms of number of sequences and local data reported on the international sequencing portal Gisaid shows a massive growth of the "new" lineage.

In recent days, numerous BA.2 genomes have also been reported from

,

, and

. Currently, the largest number of sequences related to the variant in question come from 82% from Denmark, 7% from Sweden, 3% from India. Both sublineages have almost all the

mutations initially detected for

, but the BA.2 lineage maintains some

.

It is difficult to differentiate from

deletion

that allows us to suspect that it belongs to the

variant directly from the test.

In order to identify the BA.2 variant, it is necessary to sequence all the samples, and this implies a laboratory capacity that not all countries have.

That is why the Danish data is important.

Also in this case it is necessary to wait and continue monitoring: many variants have been born and have been confined in some areas without spreading or generating concern.

The Ihu variant

Recently, another variant called

has been identified in the

in

and renamed precisely as IHU.

The mutations it presents would have 46, 37 deletions, therefore more than

.

In any case, it seems a variant limited to the 12 patients under surveillance: the WHO expert

recalled that the "mother" of this subvariant, B.1.640, was already classified in her day as a

(VUM) in November, which would suggest that it does not have the ability to supplant the predominant variants.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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