PUNE: Leading virologists in India told TOI on Tuesday there’s no need to panic over reports of a possible recombination of Omicron and Delta variants as a single SARS-CoV-2 variant found recently in a UK patient. They said there is still no evidence that the recombination has any additional advantage compared to the Omicron variant.
Virologist Dr Shahid Jameel said, “The same cells in the infected person should be co-infected with the two variants. But even that is not enough. The person should also have a weak immune system, allowing the variants to persist for longer time than in a normal person. That would allow recombination of the two variants, which is a low-frequency event in itself.”
