Scientists have identified in Russia a new strain of coronavirus “Russian deltacron”

Researchers have identified a new version of the coronavirus in Russia, which is a hybrid of the Omicron and Delta strains. The danger of the “Russian Deltacron” has not yet been studied, RBC writes on Thursday, citing the American geneticist Dmitry Pruss.

The delta coronavirus strain was first described in India at the end of 2020, for some time it was dominant in the prevailing majority of countries in the world. However, in 2021 it began to be rapidly replaced by the more contagious Omicron strain, first established in South Africa. As a result, it was “omicron”, more contagious and causing in most cases a less severe form of the disease, that began to dominate the world. In June, Rospotrebnadzor informed that omicron accounts for almost 98.3% of all cases of COVID-19 detected in the country.

As RBC Pruss commented, viruses that combine fragments of “omicron” and “delta” are very rare, since the “delta” strain has practically disappeared, however, it was precisely such rare hybrid viruses that were found in the latest downloads of genomic data from St. Petersburg.

“The first of them appeared in the bases in early July, and were met with a slight distrust. But by the end of July, researchers at the Smorodintsev Institute for Influenza had found even more such genomes. We rechecked everything we could, and came to a confident conclusion: this is not a mistake, but really a hybrid virus, ”the scientist quoted the publication as saying.

So far, such a strain of coronavirus has not been detected in any other country in the world, Pruss clarifies, therefore, most likely, its place of origin is Russia. And the prevalence of the strain is still low, at least in St. Petersburg, where research was carried out by the Institute of Influenza.

“Whether the recently discovered ‘Russian Deltacron’ is dangerous remains to be determined. It is unknown if it can outcompete other strains. It is also unknown whether it can cause severe covid,” Pruss said and advised Russian medical institutions to strengthen monitoring of new strains. More active reading of genomes will be required, and improved transparency of reports with their uploading to world databases, and just random testing for covid.

“Without this, there is not enough data to say whether it is time to add epidemiological control measures,” the scientist concluded.