The coronavirus is running out of ability to mutate, so the Omicron strain may be its last option. This assumption was made on Tuesday, December 21, therapist, clinical pharmacologist Andrei Kondrakhin.
According to him, the virus has already adapted enough to humans, and is likely to stop at its current level. Kondrakhin noted that there were only two official deaths from the new strain. The number of such cases is so small that they cannot even be called a statistical error.
“Two people for the whole world is clearly nothing at all. In addition, they do not tell us exactly what these people died of: maybe they were sick with the delta, and the omicron just joined. In any case, we see that the new strain does not lead to such massive deterioration of the condition as expected, ”the doctor said in an interview with the Lenta.Ru portal.
He added that the only danger here is that the Omicron is spreading faster.
“There is an opinion that Omicron is a variant of an ending epidemic. And we can agree with this. The existing strain does not lead to rapid lethality; rather, it gives delayed consequences, and the ability to mutate is running out. He gradually adapts to the person and to stay at the current level, ”the clinical pharmacologist believes.
Earlier that day, representatives of health authorities in Texas (USA) recorded the first death from the Omicron coronavirus strain, according to the 360 TV channel.
On December 13, the UK reported the first death from the effects of the Omicron strain. Experts believe that in the worst case scenario, up to 75 thousand people can die from infection in five months in the country.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Omicron is spreading much faster than other mutations of the virus and is more likely to infect both vaccinated and those who have already had COVID-19.
According to WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, this year 3.3 million people have died from coronavirus in the world. This exceeds the total deaths in 2020 from HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
A large-scale vaccination campaign is underway in the Russian Federation. Citizens are vaccinated for free. Five vaccines against coronavirus have been registered in the country: Sputnik V, which became the first vaccine against COVID-19 in the Russian Federation and the world, as well as Sputnik Light, EpiVacCorona, EpiVacCorona-N and KoviVak.
All relevant information on the situation with the coronavirus is available on the websites of stopcoronavirus.rf and accessvsem.rf, as well as by the hashtag #WeV Together. Coronavirus hotline: 8 (800) 2000-112.
A new strain of coronavirus, code B.1.1.529, was identified in South Africa on November 11. The first confirmed cases of infection date from November 24. The strain was named with the Greek letter “omicron” and has already managed to recognize its danger at the level of the World Health Organization.