Assistant health director Espen Nakstad says we currently know little about the new virus variant “delta crown”, which is a mixture of delta and omicron.
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Aftonbladet wrote on Saturday that vaccine researchers at Karolinska Institutet believe the variant is probably found in Sweden.
They do not know how contagious the variant is, or whether it will outcompete omikron.
Not familiar with cases in Norway
When there is as much infection in society as there is now, Nakstad is not surprised that new virus combinations appear.
– Now this has obviously happened in that one and the same person has been infected with both the delta and omicron variant, and spread a new SARS-CoV-2 virus with genes from the two variants to others, Nakstad writes in an email to NTB .
He is not aware that the variant has been proven in Norway. However, it has been proven in Denmark and France.
As early as January, researchers in Cyprus thought they had found a new corona variant that was a mixture of omicron and delta. FHI, however, believed that it could revolve around a laboratory error.
Major change in the genetic material
Nakstad says such a change in the virus’ genetic material is far greater than the changes that occur when the virus changes step by step through common mutations.
– It is not certain that “delta crown” has disease-causing properties that significantly differentiate it from the omicron variant, nor is it certain that it is more contagious than omicron. But it is obviously so contagious that it has spread and been detected in several places, says Nakstad.
He points out that new virus variants are expected in the future, and that the most important thing will be that they do not cause more serious illness and that the vaccine protects against them.
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