WHO is concerned about the emergence of a new strain of COVID-19 with multiple mutations
The medical community supported the Russian Ministry of Health's proposal to switch from mass vaccination against coronavirus to vaccination for risk groups. The incidence of COVID-19 in Russia remains low, but for the first time in six months, the curve has crept up again - the increase in the number of cases over the week amounted to 2%. At the same time, the US and some European countries are already talking about a new wave of COVID and are worried about a new strain with a large number of mutations.There are far fewer patients diagnosed with covida in Russia now than there were a year and six months ago, and the disease itself - in those who do get infected - is much milder. This was confirmed by a survey of doctors and nurses conducted by the Vrachu.ru distance medical education service in mid-August. Recently, the Russian Ministry of Health proposed to switch from mass vaccination against COVID-19 to vaccination for at-risk groups, and doctors were asked to answer how they feel about this change. Most physicians (73%) agreed that the current situation does not require mass vaccination, with many respondents saying they "don't see the point in it anymore."
Nevertheless, 14.4% of physicians admitted that they do not have a clear opinion on this issue. And 12.6% of almost 2,500 participants were in favor of maintaining mass vaccination.
What do the statistics say? Now for every 100 thousand people 2.03 diagnosed cases of coronavirus infection are registered. Of course, it's not much. But still, the constantly falling incidence rate stopped in early August, and for the week of August 7-13, for the first time in many months, a slight increase was recorded - by 1.9% compared to the previous week. "The increase in morbidity was noted in 38 regions", - noted in the operstab.
The number of hospitalizations also increased - 972 patients with COVID-19 had to be sent to hospitals during the week, an increase of 5.4% compared to the previous week. The increase in the number of hospitalizations occurred in 33 regions.
Rospotrebnadzor has not yet reported why the coronavirus has become more frequently infected. The recent "debutant" strain "Eris", which is associated with an increase in the incidence of the disease in the U.S. and some other countries, was detected in Russia back in April, but has not become widespread. According to Rospotrebnadzor monitoring data, cases of infection with this strain are still isolated. "However, there are risks of complicating the epidemiological situation on COVID-19 associated with its spread," the federal service warned.
Meanwhile, another new variant of SARS-CoV-2 has made noise in recent days. It has been coded as VA.2.86 and listed by the WHO as a "variant under surveillance." This Omicron descendant has more than 30 mutations, some of which may contribute to its evasion of immune defenses and, not excluded, higher pathogenicity. Genomes of this variant have been found in Denmark, Israel, the UK, and the US.
"This wide geographic spread suggests that the new variant will not fade away and will manifest itself in the near future. Virologists say that there has been an evolutionary leap comparable to the one that originally gave rise to the Omicron lineage." Officially, this variant has not been assigned a letter of the Greek alphabet, for this VA.2.86 must move to the category of "causing concern" - explained an expert in the field of laboratory diagnostics "MedLabExpert" Alexander Soloviev. - The coming weeks and months will clarify the situation with this new variant of the virus."
"Questions about the need for prevention of covirus are still relevant and actively discussed, because, on the one hand, it is quite obvious that this virus has not disappeared anywhere and is with us for a long time, it continues to evolve and cause periodic rises in morbidity in different countries, - said "RG" leading scientific editor of the service of distance education of medical workers Vrachu.ru Mikhail Kagan. - But, on the other hand, most people have met with this virus before, have been sick with its various variants and vaccinated, and their immune system is already coping with it quite well. Well, and in general, observations show that more and more often now, many people are getting mild flu, and many people who have symptoms of the disease are not tested, which makes it difficult to really assess the prevalence of the disease".
The situation for most people is objectively less dangerous now, much different than it was at the beginning of the pandemic. Many people's immune systems are already familiar with the virus, able to meet it at the start and prevent it from multiplying to the point where life-threatening complications develop in the form of a cytokine storm. "However, it must be remembered that in the elderly, in people with chronic diseases, in whom the immune system is weakened, this does not work, and covid for the vulnerable category continues to pose a serious threat," emphasizes Mikhail Kagan.
The situation may worsen, because after the removal of collective prevention measures, the risk of contracting covid is likely to increase.