A new strain of COVID has been detected in Australia, a hybrid of the Delta and Omicron variants dubbed ‘Deltacron’.
Just as we were beginning to get used to normal life again, COVID has hit us with another strain. The new variant, Deltacron, is a result of a mutation that likely developed when someone was infected with Omicron and Delta simultaneously.
Deltacron was first noticed in February, with cases found in France, then spreading across Europe and the United States.
Yesterday, officials found a case of the mutated variant in New South Wales, and today Queensland Health confirmed they have discovered “a number of cases” through genomic sequencing.
So should you be worried?
At the moment, it seems like Deltacron is no more dangerous than Omicron as it takes the majority of its properties from the most recent strain.
“Given that’s what accounts for the majority of the properties of the virus, that’s why this is behaving a lot more like Omicron,” Infectious diseases expert Paul Griffin said.
“In some ways, that’s good news, because we know Delta was perhaps more severe in terms of the illness that it caused, but we know that Omicron is likely more infectious.”
According to experts there are actually two breeds of Deltacron, with the European strain differing slightly from the one that spread through the US. It is not yet known which of these has spread to Australia, but considering they were both pretty similar, it won’t make too much of a difference.
So basically, keep being safe and avoiding high-risk situations, but there’s no need for any increase in concern.
