Rospotrebnadzor announced the identification of six cases of "Russian deltacron"

As of August 10, six cases of a new variant of the CORONAVIRUS, which is a hybrid of the Omicron and Delta strains, have been identified in Russia. This was reported to journalists in Rospotrebnadzor, TASS reports.

RBC reported on the discovery in Russia of a new strain with the unofficial name "Russian delcatron".

“As of 08/10/22, 6 genomic sequences related to the indicated COVID-19 variant have been loaded into the VGARus database. The sequences are dated July and early August. Five samples for research were taken in St. Petersburg , one in Moscow, ”the Rospotrebnadzor said.

The department emphasized that patients who had a hybrid variant of COVID-19 had a mild illness, none of them required hospitalization. “At the moment, there is no reason to believe that the hybrid variant leads to a more severe course of the disease or is more transmissible,” they said.

In addition, Rospotrebnadzor noted that "recent reports on the detection of a hybrid strain in Russia were given with reference to an American geneticist." “We drew attention to the indifference of American scientists to the epidemiological situation in Russia. We recommend that our colleagues closely monitor what is happening in their own country, because the situation with COVID-19 in the United States remains quite tense,” the message says.

As the American geneticist Dmitry Pruss explained to RBC, viruses that combine fragments of the omicron and delta genomes are very rare, since the delta strain has practically disappeared. “However, it is precisely such unusual 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 of 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, ”said the scientist.

This type of coronavirus has not yet been detected in any other country in the world, Pruss notes, therefore, most likely, its homeland is Russia . Nevertheless, the prevalence of the strain is still low, at least in St. Petersburg, where the Institute of Influenza conducted research. “Whether the recently discovered ‘Russian Deltacron’ is dangerous remains to be determined. It is not known if it can outcompete other strains. It is also unknown whether it can cause severe covid, ”the scientist stated.

Delta-omicron hybrids have been reported before. In January, Cypriot scientists reported on the discovery of a "deltacron". He had the same genetic basis with the "delta" and at the same time had mutations characteristic of the "omicron". However, this hybrid was detected in only 25 people. In this regard, there were suggestions that the "deltacron" was a laboratory error - the result of contamination of the virus sample taken for sequencing. Maria van Kerkhove, HEAD of the technical team at the World HEALTH Organization's Emergency Diseases Unit, shared this view. Russian virologists did not exclude such a possibility.

Since July, the number of cases of COVID-19 infection has been growing in Russia. Over the month, the incidence increased almost four times, and by August 7, when the number of infected for the first time since the end of March exceeded 20 thousand, almost seven times. On August 11, 25,815 new cases of COVID-19 were detected in Russia, which was the maximum since March 23.

At the same time, Rospotrebnadzor believes that there are no reasons for the return of coronavirus restrictions in the country. The agency, however, has advised older people and those with chronic illnesses to wear masks in public.