The rate of rise in MERS-CoV infection associated with the COVID-19 'omicron' variant is increasing. In the United States, hospitalizations are approaching record levels, and officials in China reported the first known cases of omicron there on Sunday, January 9, leading to mass testing and quarantines in the city of Tianjin.
Also, a scientist in Cyprus said on January 7 that his team had identified a new type of COVID-19 in 25 patients, which appeared to be a combination of delta and omicron variants. Dubbed it "deltacron".
It is possible for coronavirus variants to “recombine” their genomes and form new strains. But in this case, "deltacron" appears to be a red alibi — or, as molecular biologist Eric Topol of the Scripps Research Translational Institute put it, "scary."
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