The new Omicron COVID-19 variant will either supplant the Delta strain or its circulation will be limited to some remote Russian regions, founder and General Director of the Scientific Center for Molecular and Genetic Research DNKOM Andrey Isaev told TASS on Monday.
"The Delta [variant] will likely fall out of the population. According to our offices in 20 [Russian] regions, from January 28 to February 1, some 2% [of the COVID-19 cases] were Delta, the rest cases were Omicron. From February 1 to 6, only some isolated cases of Delta were registered, Omicron has become the dominant variant in the country," the Russian expert noted, TASS reports.
Isaev also assumed that the Delta variant would circulate only in some remote Russian regions.
The B.1.1.529 COVID-19 variant named after the Greek letter omicron was discovered in southern Africa last year. According to the anti-coronavirus crisis center, the Omicron variant was recorded in 84 out of 85 Russian regions. On February 9, Chairman of the National Scientific Society of Infectious Diseases, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Gorelov stated that the share of Omicron in Russia reached 70%.
