In a worrying news, Maharashtra has now reportedly logged cases associated with the highly contagious hybrid COVID-19 variant - Deltacron.
Earlier this month, reports suggested that cases of this recombinant virus of Delta and Omicron were detected across India.
According to the latest report by the COVID Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) and GSAID, as many as 568 cases are under the scanner.
Of the total, Maharashtra has 66 cases of Deltacron, which fourth highest in India.
What Is Deltacron?
Deltacron is not a new variant of COVID-19, it is a recombinant variant that combines the genes from both delta and omicron variants together. So, in layman's terms deltacron is the combination of Delta + Omicron.
Symptoms:
As per UK NHS and CDC, the symptoms of Omicron, Delta recombinant virus remain as they have been for most of the pandemic, but scientists are still monitoring it.
High Temperature
New, Persistent Cough
Loss of Smell and Taste
Sore Throat
Unexplained Fatigue
Headaches
How was this recombinant strain first detected?
The first ever case of Deltacron was found in mid-February in Paris, France from an elderly. Most of its genetic sequence was the same as delta’s, which was dominant worldwide up until late last year. However, a part of the sequence that encodes the virus’s spike protein came from Omicron.
State Wise number of Deltacron cases in India
Karnataka - 221 cases
Tamil Nadu - 90 cases
Gujarat - 33 cases
West Bengal - 32 cases
Telangana - 25 cases
New Delhi - 20 cases
Deltacron Cases Globally
By March, three further hybrid genetic sequences had been reported, this time in the US. There are now over 60 logged, across France, the Netherlands, Denmark, the US and the UK.
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