New Deltacron variant discovered in Israel
The Deltacron, a new, hybrid Coronavirus (COVID-19) variant was recently discovered in Israel, as the fifth wave of infections refuses to subside.
A COVID-19 antigen rapid test Credit: Dronepicr via Wikimedia Commons.
Preliminary cases of the Deltacron mutation were recently discovered in genetic sequences done on COVID-19 patients who had recently arrived from Europe.
As of now, experts do not think that this new variant is more violent because it has components of the known delta variant for which the vaccine is effective.
However, the Ministry of Health is concerned by the spread of the BA2 variant, an Omicron sub-variant, which is currently responsible for some 55% of cases in Israel.
The Health Ministry’s data shows that a very high 11.48% of the Corona tests done Monday returned positive, and 5,819 new cases were documented.
The R coefficient, which indicates the spread of the virus, has climbed in recent days after consistently dropping, and was registered at 0.86, possibly the tail end of the fifth wave of infections in the country.
10,392 Israelis have died of the virus in the past two years, including 54 in the past week.
TPS
