MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/. Mass influenza vaccination will help diagnose the novel coronavirus, because doctors can immediately rule out flu viruses as a cause of an acute respiratory disease, Russia’s former chief sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko, who is now first deputy chairman of the State Duma (lower house) Education and Science Committee, told TASS.

"The upcoming epidemic season will have one specific feature. There is a chance that the coronavirus infection, which is a respiratory infection, will be present among those viruses, which cause a seasonal rise in the incidence of the disease. It [getting inoculated for the flu] will be better for those people who will be vaccinated for the flu, and it will also be easier for doctors to diagnose the disease. When a person who has been vaccinated [for the flu] shows symptoms, there is every likelihood that he or she has contracted the coronavirus," he said.

Onishchenko stressed that it would be particularly important to get jabbed for the flu because of the stress that the body endured during the self-isolation period. "This year has been special, we had to self-isolate <…> for a long time, we experienced chronic stress. That’s why our body needs vaccination today more than ever," he pointed out.

Russia’s regions will begin to receive first batches of influenza vaccines on August 10, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said earlier. According to Anna Popova, the chief sanitary doctor, head of the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing, new influenza virus strains that Russians have not been vaccinated for yet will appear in the country this coming autumn and winter. Later on, the Russian Ministry of Health said that vaccines against new flu strains had been developed by now.