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A hybrid of the Omicron and Delta variants has begun circulating in Europe. The variant, which some have dubbed “Deltacron,” has slowly begun surfacing in France, Denmark, and the Netherlands, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) press briefing held on Wednesday.
Maria Van Kerkhove, PhD, COVID-19 technical lead at the WHO, said during the briefing that there is very good surveillance in many countries right now and as a result experts have determined “there are very low levels of this detection.”
An organization of scientists around the world who share virus data have also confirmed the emergence of Deltacron. The group, the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) provided data from France’s Pasteur Institute on its website, calling it the “first solid evidence for a Delta-Omicron recombinant virus,” which it says has been circulating since early January 2022.
It’s also important to note that hybrid variants aren’t anything unusual, Van Kerkhove wrote on Twitter. “This is to be expected, especially [with] intense circulation of #omicron & delta.”
