BRASILIA – Brazil has confirmed two cases of infection with the new Deltacron variant of the coronavirus, which combines genetic characteristics of the Delta and Omicron variants, Brazilian Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said Tuesday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been monitoring the spread of Deltacron since early March, after it was first identified in France.

“Our genomic surveillance service has already identified two cases in Brazil. One in Amapa, another in Para,” said Queiroga, referring to two northern states.

Read more: Brazil’s COVID-19 death toll reaches 650,000

Brazil on Monday reported 11,287 new cases of COVID-19 and 171 more deaths from the disease in 24 hours, accumulating 29,380,063 confirmed cases and 655,249 deaths since the onset of the pandemic, according to the latest data from the Health Ministry.