A new variant of coronavirus has been found in the UK, with the country’s Health Security Agency now monitoring how it develops.
The news comes after the UK has had to tolerate two years of Covid 19, with multiple variants like Omicron, Delta and Alpha taking it in turns to cause havoc, lock down the country and claim the lives of thousands of people.
With signs emerging that Omicron is beginning to recede, the government has begun to dramatically scale back restrictions over the UK.
In the biggest change yet, mandatory isolation for people who test positive for the virus is due to be lifted on February 24.
What is the new Covid variant?
It has been labelled ‘Deltacron’ after seemingly exhibiting aspects of the Omicron and Delta variants that have, at differing points, ripped through the UK.
Its scientific name is BA.1 + B.1.617.2.
Experts have reported it has developed in patients who caught both Omicron and Delta at the same time, WalesOnline reports.
The UK Health Security Agency, or UKHSA, is yet to deliver a verdict on how contagious this form of the virus is, or how dangerous it could be for people who catch it.
According to the Mail , the UKHSA is yet to announce how many cases of the hybrid have been found in the country.
Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline: "If both Delta and Omicron are falling then, in theory, this [variant] should struggle to take off."
Covid variants that are products of recombination are rare but have been known to form at points throughout the pandemic - three cases have arisen in the past with hundreds having been infected.
Speaking to the MailOnline, a UKHSA source said: "We monitor everything as a matter of course, but we are not particularly anxious about this variant."
The developments have led to Deltacron being included in the UKHSA’s variant surveillance report.
India.com reports that the variant was initially believed to be a laboratory error, however, its inclusion in the report has signalled that the variant is real.
The same publication reports that the UKHSA is yet to report whether the variant was imported to the UK or whether it is native.
The Mail report that sources at the UKHSA is “not concerned” by the variant with case numbers remaining low.
The findings are contextualised by generally positive news about Covid, with the number of people who have tested positive up to February 15 having fallen by 140,574, or 27.6%, in the last seven days.
