Initially, experts and epidemiologists claimed that instances of viral recombination were extremely rare since there was no clinical evidence to prove the prevalence of such mutations.
Soon after, the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged the existence of Delta + Omicron recombinant strain (Deltacron), which was detected by the Pasteur Institute in France.
A non-peer reviewed study published on research site MedRxiv, partly funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recently sequenced and looked at 29,719 positive coronavirus samples collected between Nov. 22 to Feb. 13. Out of the total cases, the researchers found two cases of a delta-omicron recombinant virus.
Philippe Colson of IHU Mediterranee Infection in Marseille, France, the lead author of the study said, “During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, two or more variants have co-circulated during same periods of time and in the same geographical areas. … This created opportunities for recombination between these two variants.”
Maria Van Kerkhove, Infectious Disease Epidemiologist and WHO’s Technical Lead on COVID-19, in a press conference said that the recombinant virus was something that is expected “given the large amount of circulation, the intense amount of circulation that we saw with both omicron and delta.”
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