Russia reports its first case of new Covid-19 sub-variant Kraken

MOSCOW. Jan 12 (Interfax) - Russia has registered its first case of a new sub-variant of the Covid-19 Omicron strain, XBB.1.5, or Kraken, which is considered to be highly infectious, the country's consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said, adding that the case has been reported in the Penza region.

"The first case of the Omicron sub-variant XBB.1.5 Kraken was registered in the Penza region as part of monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing data," it said.

An extensive range of Omicron sub-variants has been found in Russia to date, but BA.5 remains the dominant sub-lineage, Rospotrebnadzor said. Meanwhile, just a few cases of the Delta variant, which widely circulated in the second half of 2021, were recorded in the fall of 2022.

"Other strains have not been registered over the past few months," it said.

As reported earlier, the Kraken sub-variant of Covid-19 is considered to be highly infectious but its cases are assessed as mild.