Share of Omicron variant of coronavirus in Russia tops 95% - Rospotrebnadzor

MOSCOW. March 1 (Interfax) - The Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus infection accounts for over 95% of some 110,000 genomic sequences of SARS CoV-2 that have been sequenced in Russia, Anna Popova, chief of the Russian public health and consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said on Tuesday.

"The cumulative number of genomic sequences of SARS CoV-2 obtained through the whole-genome and fragmentary sequencing and entered into the VGARus database as of February 28, 2022 reached 109,816," Rospotrebnadzor quoted Popova as saying at a teleconference with Rospotrebnadzor's local offices.

"Among these, 95.1% of the sequences have been listed as the Omicron genome variant," she said.

The share of the Delta variant is 4.2% and the other variants 0.7%.

Daily cases of Covid-19 in Russia started rising sharply following the New Year's, which specialists attribute to the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.