An official recently reported about the COVID-19 mutation in Russia, specifically with over 1,000 cases identified there.
The head of the protection watchdog of Russia yesterday said that the COVID-19 infections identified in the country involved one of three variants that are believed to be more infectious, The Moscow Times reported.
The World Health Organization lists the COVID-19 mutations originating from South Africa, India and Britain, as variants of concern, although the agency has not said that any of them are more fatal compared to the original strain of the virus.
Out of more than 1,000 detected COVID-19 mutation cases in Russia, Anna Popova, head of Rospotrebnadzor, said during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, 70 percent are the British variant, 24 percent the Indian variant and six percent, the South African variant.
Meaning, Russia has infections from at least 700 British variants, 240 Indian variant strain infections, and 60 South African variant infections.
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Russian authorities said the Sputnik V vaccine is effective at preventing the Indian variant.
Sputnik V Vaccine's Efficacy
In relation to the most recent report about COVID-19 mutation, Russian authorities have claimed that the domestically-developed COVID-19, namely Sputnik V, is effective at preventing the Indian variant.
Meanwhile, United States research has indicated that Sputnik V is substantially less effective against the South African strain.
In April, the official Twitter account of Sputnik specified that the developer of the vaccine, the Gamaleya Institute, based in Russia, would publish a peer-reviewed study on the Sputnik V Vaccine's efficacy against COVID-19 mutations, supposedly by May, although it has not yet done so.
Meanwhile, in late March, according to Tass Russian news agency, the health ministry of India reported that a new COVID-19 variant with E484Q and L452R Mutations in the S protein had been discovered in Russia.
The ministry said it was particularly alarming that the new variant had a pair of mutations formerly observed in other COVID-19 strains. It was also reported that such mutations took place in some 15 to 20 percent of specimens and were identified, as mentioned in South African, Brazilian and British variants.
Earlier Mutation in Russia
Popova has said before that patients infected with the new COVID-19 strains had not experienced different symptoms compared to patients who were infected with the original strain of the virus.
Last month, Russia confirmed its initial cases of the COVID-19 mutation that was first detected in India among a group of 130 first-year medical students from India who had arrived in April in Ulyanovsk.
Citing an epidemiological official, media outlet Izvestia reported, the Indian strain has since been detected in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Pskov region.
Earlier on, Russia Beyond reported, in March, Russia was busily preparing for a then mass spread of COVID-19. It appeared, officials, there were thinking things would get worse before they got even better.
At the time, Russia had 199 confirmed COVID-19 cases with the zero-death report. The numbers were not as alarming as those for Italy or China then.
Yet, every day, the number of confirmed cases increased by several dozen individuals. Customers were stockpiling buckwheat, sanitizers and toilet paper, travellers who returned from their trips abroad self-isolate for two weeks, while hospitals prepared to mobilize in the occurrence of an emergency.
Related report is shown on DW News's YouTube video below:
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