In recent days a new variant has been proposed - a recombinant of BR.2.1 "Cerastes" and XBF "Bythos". The earliest sample reported so far was from Victoria, in mid-January. All the samples globally have been found in Australia - covering New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.

Recombinant variants typically arise when an immune-compromised patient is infected with multple variants at once. The more often that happens, and the longer the co-infection, the more chances of recombinant variants being formed and spreading to the broader population.

As recombinant variants have become more common, they are involved in more of these scenarios. This gives the virus a multiplier in it's constant search to find new, more evasive combinations.

I'm searching for those samples here by looking for samples with the Spike F486P and NS8 S82T mutations. There are 10 so far, rising to around 1.5% frequency for Australia. There's now very limited genomic sequencing data shared from other states besides NSW, so this could be going undetected elsewhere.

#COVID19 #Australia #XBF #Bythos #BR_2_1 #Cerastes @auscovid19
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