5 Apr 2022 16:11

Share of stealth Omicron in Covid-19 infections in Russia up to 80% over past 2 weeks - Rospotrebnadzor

MOSCOW. April 5 (Interfax) - The share of stealth Omicron in Covid-19 infections in Russia nears 80%, while the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus accounts for 94% of all cases, the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) said in a statement.

"Over the past two weeks, Russia has seen the prevalence of Omicron sub-lineage BA.2, which accounts for about 80% of all cases. The first runner-up is sub-lineage BA.1, which makes up about 12% of infections," the statement said.

As of the 13th week of 2022, 1,986 sequencing results have been entered into the VGARus database, including 1,875 Omicron sequences (94.4% of the total number), 22 Delta sequences (1.1%), and 89 sequences of non-dominating strains (4.5 %), it said.

The Covid-19 morbidity level remains high in Russia, it still exceeds the level observed a year ago, Rospotrebnadzor said.

"On the 13th week of 2022, the country registered 128,314 cases of Covid-19. The incidence rate stood at 87.44 cases per 100,000 residents, down 25.6% from the previous week," it said.

Three constituent territories account for 12.4% of all cases (5.1% in Moscow, 5.0% in St. Petersburg, and 2.3% in the Moscow region). The morbidity was rising in three regions on the 13th week of 2022, Rospotrebnadzor said.

"In all, on the 13th week of 2022, the average incidence rate in Russia (87.44 cases per 100,000 residents) was exceeded in more than half of Russian regions (45 constituent territories)," it said.