Anna Popova, the head of Rospotrebnadzor, announced at the general meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) that a new test system had been developed in the Russian Federation for detecting the Omicron variant of coronavirus.
“It is being tested in South Africa. And, since we already have the variant in the country, we can test for it,” Interfax quotes Popova as saying.
Specialists of Rospotrebnadzor and the Ministry of Health arrived in South Africa on Monday, December 13, at the instruction of Russian President Vladimir Putin. They will have to study the strain, including possible ways to treat it.
According to Anna Popova, Omicron variant was detected in 17 people in the Russian Federation; they all had returned from South Africa or neighboring countries. They have a mild course of the coronavirus. In total, 177 people who returned to Russia from South Africa and neighboring countries went to isolation.
At the end of November Veronika Skvortsova, the head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency (FMBA), said that about nine days was needed to create a test system in Russia to detect the Omicron strain.
On November 26, the World Health Organization (WHO) assigned the greek letter Omicron to B.1.1.529 variant of COVID-19 found in South Africa. According to the WHO statement, this variety “has a large number of mutations, some of which are of concern,” as they may reduce the effectiveness of vaccines. According to preliminary information, the strain has an increased ability to spread.
