Russia sees surge in coronavirus morbidity, but number of hospitalizations increased only slightly - Rospotrebnadzor head

MOSCOW. July 25 (Interfax) - Russia is seeing an increase in the incidence of coronavirus amid the emergence of new, more contagious sub-variants of the infection, Russian consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor head Anna Popova said.

"Given the situation, which, as we assumed and predicted, with the emergence of new highly contagious gene variants of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, the situation is certainly characterized by an increase in the total number of sick people," Popova told reporters on Monday.

She also said that there has been a "completely insignificant" increase in hospital bed occupancy in Russia.

"We see that the disease is not very severe," Popova said.

She also said that existing tests in Russia are capable of identifying new sub-variants of the Omicron variant.

"Our tests, which are used in Russia (...), they are all able to detect all new gene variants of Omicron, here we are absolutely protected," Popova added.