MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/. The second wave of the coronavirus spread may not occur as current mutations don’t complicate the infection course, Deputy Director of Russia’s Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing Alexander Gorelov told Rossiya-24 TV channel.
"I believe that there won’t be [the second wave of the coronavirus - TASS] because fortunately, current mutations don’t last and don’t complicate the course of the infection process," Gorelov said.
According to the expert, the new contamination by the coronavirus is possible in case of the new type of the virus. He gave as an example the mutation of SARS-CoV-2, the genome of which changed 15% to the genetic structure of its predecessor, SARS-CoV-1.
Meanwhile, Gorelov did not rule out the second wave of the coronavirus in theory. "We are not done with the first wave, and the second wave is possible, theoretically," the expert said.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, nearly 54.4 mln people have been infected worldwide and more than 1.3 mln deaths have been reported.
To date, 1,948,603 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 1,453,849 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 33,489 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.