UK on Delta-Omicron recombinant variant of SARS-COV-2 On February 11, Britain had listed the Delta-Omicron recombinant variant of SARS-COV-2 under 'signals currently under monitoring and investigation'.
Additional clusters of Delta-Omicron recombinant genomes have been reported from Queensland in Australia and another seven recombinants have been reported from the east coast of the US.
Recombination occurs when fragments of two different variants of a virus infect the same host cell. Meanwhile, according to a South African study, the rapidly spreading omicron BA.2 subvariant doesn’t cause significantly more severe disease than the original version.
The emergence of BA.2 has caused widespread concern as it appears to be even more transmissible than the original omicron strain that was first identified in South Africa and has since spread around the world, leading to waves of infections in the US, Europe and elsewhere.