Gunzburg announced dozens of COVID strains other than "omicron" in Russia

Dozens of hybrids of the omicron-strain of CORONAVIRUS are circulating in RUSSIA, which are not similar to this variant, the DIRECTOR of the Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after V.I. N. F. Gamalei Alexander Gintsburg.

“The diversity that is now present and surrounds us is already dozens of different strains that cause a similar disease with a coronavirus infection. The types of the omicron strain that are currently circulating, these recombinants with the letter X, are very different from the original omicron,” he said.

According to Gunzburg, hybrids arose during the genetic exchange of different strains of the virus, and therefore it is incorrect to attribute them to subspecies of "omicron".

The day before, on January 7, it became known that in the United States a new variant of the omicron strain of coronavirus, XBB.1.5 or “kraken”, is spreading rapidly in parts of the country. The Wall Street Journal reported, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that the subspecies accounted for 40.5% of U.S. coronavirus cases in the week ending Dec. 31. Two weeks earlier, the figure was about 10%.

The newspaper Politico, referring to data from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), reported that the EU fears an increase in the number of cases of infection with the "kraken", but so far it is present in the countries of the union at a low level.

Rospotrebnadzor indicated that by January 6, no infected "kraken" had been found in Russia.