The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Ghebreyesus said that the new strain of coronavirus infection “omicron” is spreading much faster than other variants of the virus.
“There is now strong evidence that the omicron spreads much faster than the delta, and it is more likely that people who are vaccinated or have been ill can become infected again,” Ghebreyesus said at a briefing in Geneva, RIA Novosti writes.
The head of WHO added that in 2021 more than 3.3 million people died from coronavirus infection in the world, which is significantly higher than the total number of people affected by HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
Recall that a new strain of COVID-19 “omicron” was found in Botswana and South Africa in November this year. The new type of virus contains dozens of mutations in the S-protein. According to scientists, this indicates a high transmissibility of this strain and resistance to protective antibodies.
Earlier, the head of the Russian Ministry of Health, Mikhail Murashko, said that the proportion of vaccinated patients among hospital patients is only 4%, and there are very few severe cases. According to him, most often it is the unvaccinated Russians who need hospitalization. The Minister noted that the Sputnik V vaccine has good neutralizing activity against the new omicron strain.