26 Jul 2022 17:02

Proportion of new more contagious sub-variants of Omicron variant reached 75% in Russia in 2 weeks - Rospotrebnadzor

MOSCOW. July 26 (Interfax) - The share of new, more infectious sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5 of the Omicron variant of coronavirus has risen to 75% in two weeks, and the Covid-19 morbidity rate in the country was 50% higher than the average for the past four weeks, Russian consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said.

"Over the past two weeks, 2.04% of the total number of sequences were attributed to the BA.1 lineage of the Omicron gene variant, 21.56% to the BA.2 lineage, 75.39% to the BA.4/BA.5 lineages and 0.85% to the Delta gene variant. As many as 0.16% of sequences were attributed to the sub-variant BA.2.75 (Centaurus) of the Omicron variant," the press service for the watchdog told reporters.

By the end of the week, 43,985 cases of Covid-19 were recorded in Russia, Rospotrebnadzor said. The morbidity rate stood at 29.97 per 100,000 people, which is 48.9% higher than last week and 50.2% higher than the average for the past four weeks.

The incidence rate was higher than the nationwide average in 17 regions.