MOSCOW: Russia has reported a new coronavirus variant of some COVID-19 infections that is believed to be even more contagious than Delta, the RIA news agency said Thursday (Oct. 21).
It is possible that the AY.4.2 variant will spread widely, the RIA quoted Kamil Khafizov, a senior researcher at the state consumer agency.
This could cause the number of new Covid-19 cases, which is already a record in Russia, to rise further.
The new variant could even replace Delta eventually, although the process is likely to be slow, he said.
This week, President Vladimir Putin approved a government proposal to close the job for a week in early November after coronavirus-related deaths across Russia in the last day again reached an average daily record of 1,028 on Wednesday and 34,073 new infections.
In the UK, the sub-variant called Delta Plus, called AY.4.2, is growing and accounts for about 6 per cent of all sequences produced in the UK, the UK Health Safety Agency said last week, but has not been labeled ”under investigation” or a ”worrying variant”.
