'Deltacron' is NOT outcompeting any Covid strain yet

‘Deltacron’ is NOT outcompeting any Covid strain yet as experts insist hybrid virus ‘doesn’t warrant particular attention’

Hybrid was first indented in the UK in January but has not increased dramatically
Both and UK health officials and scientists are not overly concerned about it
No current evidence it causes more severe illness or makes jabs less effective

Don’t panic, reports of a hybrid Covid variants of Omicron and Delta spreading in the UK are not a cause for concern, scientists have said.

So called “Deltacron”, a hybrid between the highly virulent and currently dominant Omicron, and the deadlier variant Delta has been feared in some circles as potentially being a kind of “super-hybrid” between the two.

And while the hybrid variant is spreading between people in the UK scientists and health authorities have said it is not growing at concerning rate and is unlikely to replace Omicron.

Deltacron was thrust into the spotlight once again this week after the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that Deltacron was spreading in France, Holland and Denmark.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has already been tracking Deltacron cases in the UK for weeks and in a report last month said they had found of 32 cases.

However, officials are not concerned with the that the growth rate of cases of the hybrid variant is not particularly concerning.

Scientists have also downplayed fears about Deltacron, with Professor Ian Jones, a virologist at the University of Reading, telling the The Times it would be hard to see how it could outcompete the now dominant Omicron.

‘Omicron replaced Delta so a hybrid is a step back and unlikely to be ‘better’ in any appreciable way,’ he said.

He added that unless monitoring shows that it could be a threat ‘it doesn’t warrant particular attention’.

UKHSA have said they will continue monitoring Deltacron closely as it does with all variants.

While Deltacron cases are in the UK, scientists and health officials have both said it is not a particular cause for concern (pictured commuters on the London underground last month)

An Office for National Statistics (ONS) report has revealed the UK’s new hotspots as the outbreak starts to grow again, with Northern Ireland, Scotland, London and East England recording the highest rates.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysts estimate one in 13 people in Northern Ireland were carrying the virus on any given day in the week to March 5 — nearly as many as at the height of Omicron.

Covid is now more prevalent in Scotland than at any other point in the pandemic, with one in 18 Scots positive in the first week of March, or 5.7 per cent of the entire population.

Overall in England the ONS estimates that 2.07million (one in 25) people were infected on March 5, but in the East, London and South East, the rate is closer to one in 20.

The surveillance report also found infections were rising in England before all Covid laws were lifted on Freedom Day, suggesting the transition towards ‘living with Covid’ is not solely to blame for the latest surge.

Modelling by the agency estimates that infections started to rebound on February 19, three days before the key milestone. There were 178,300 new infections that day, according to the ONS, compared to the 28,344 officially reported by the Government’s Covid dashboard.

Just 15 per cent of actual infections are being picked up by the central testing scheme, the ONS report suggests, compared to around 40 per cent earlier in the pandemic.

So far there has been no evidence that the hybrid variant make people more severely ill than other variants and likewise there are no signs Covid vaccines are less effective against it.

Even if Deltacron cases were to start to increase rapidly the UK has high levels of immunity against both its parent strains thanks to uptake of Covid jabs and due to previous infections.

The hybrid of Omicron and Delta first emerged January 7, in a person who had both variants at the same time.

Such combinations of different viruses can occur in such circumstances in a process called viral recombination.

This can occur if viruses from both strains infected the same cell which enables them to potentially swap their genetic code and make a new version of the virus.

However, there is no guarantee that such a new version is any more harmful or virulent than its parents.

This week the WHO warned Deltacron was starting to spread across Europe and it is also believed to have reached the US.

WHO officials have said they are preparing a report into Delatacron which they plan to release in the near future.

The latest UKHSA report on Covid, released just yesterday, found that of the 1,195 Covid samples sequenced 99.9 per cent were of the Omicron lineage with the remainder being of Delta ancestry.

Omicron variant BA.2 continues to have a growth advantage over other versions of the Covid virus, the report also adds.

In other Covid news today a report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) detailed how the outbreak is starting to grow again, with Northern Ireland, Scotland, London and East England recording the highest rates.

ONS analysts estimate one in 13 people in Northern Ireland were carrying the virus on any given day in the week to March 5 — nearly as many as at the height of Omicron.

Covid is now more prevalent in Scotland than at any other point in the pandemic, with one in 18 Scots positive in the first week of March, or 5.7 per cent of the entire population.

Overall in England the ONS estimates that 2.07million (one in 25) people were infected on March 5, but in the East, London and South East, the rate is closer to one in 20.

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