An expert sprays disinfectant while cleaning Leningradsky railway station in Moscow
Moscow:
A senior researcher at the state consumer watchdog said Thursday that Russia has reported “isolated cases” of COVID-19 with a subtype of the delta variant, known to be even more contagious.
The researcher, Kamil Khafeizov, said the AY.4.2 subvariant could be about 10% more contagious than the original Delta – which has driven new cases and deaths in Russia to a series of record daily highs – and could eventually replace it. .
However, he added that it is likely to be a slow process.
“The vaccines are quite effective against this version of the virus, which is not so different that dramatically alters the antibody’s ability to bind,” he said.
The AY.4.2 subvariant is also on an increasing trajectory in England and was already responsible for about 6% of all sequences generated in the week beginning 27 September, said a UK Health Protection Agency report released on 15 October .
British Health Minister Sajid Javid said on Wednesday that there is no reason to believe the subtype is at greater risk than Delta.
Russian immunologist Nikolay Kryuchkov said Delta and its subtypes will remain dominant and may in some ways be adapted for vaccines in the future, especially where vaccination rates are below or just above 50%.
“But it seems to me that there will not be a revolutionary leap, because the coronavirus, like any organism, is an evolutionary frontier, and the evolutionary leap has already taken place,” he said.
The Russian health ministry had no immediate comment.
Moscow’s mayor on Thursday announced the strictest lockdown measures since June last year, a day after President Vladimir Putin approved a government proposal for a week-long workplace shutdown in early November.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
.