MOSCOW, September 17. /TASS/. A new coronavirus strain may emerge in South Africa in the future, which will be more contagious than the Omicron variant, Director of Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology Alexander Gintsburg told TASS.

"A new coronavirus mutation may come from South Africa in the future because there are a lot of HIV-positive people. It’s hard to say how it will behave but it will replace the current mutation. It will spread more quickly than Omicron," he pointed out.

According to the researcher, the coronavirus has high mutation potential. "It hasn’t fully demonstrated its variability yet in terms of recombination," Gintsburg noted.