The chief infectious disease specialist of the Ministry of Health called the differences of "omicron"

The omicron coronavirus strain is highly contagious (contagious. -), so it has a chance to spread very quickly and infect a large number of people. In this characteristic, it differs from previous strains, Vladimir Chulanov, chief freelance specialist in infectious diseases of the Ministry of Health, said in an interview with RBC.

If the contagiousness of the virus is low, then the incidence increases gradually, Chulanov explains, in the case of the “omicron”, the time to reach the peak value in terms of the number of cases may be shorter. At the peak, due to the absolute number of cases at the same time, the healthcare system can be overloaded, he concluded.

“Lethality (the proportion of deaths among the sick. - RBC) may be lower. But mortality may increase, and it will depend on the number of cases at the same time. <...> You can’t treat “omicron” in the spirit of “well, just think, it’s not scary to get sick.” It is important to vaccinate and revaccinate six months later,” he says.

Despite the fact that the healthcare system allows for the rapid deployment of beds over the two-year period of the pandemic, “there is no need to test its strength,” urged the chief infectious disease specialist of the Ministry of Health.