MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. Immunity to the novel coronavirus infection after recovery will laso protect against the British strain, Anna Popova, chief of Russia’s sanitary watchdog, said on Tuesday.
"We continue to study the virus we isolated at our Vector Research Center. I can say that the program is being implemented as scheduled but it is obvious already now that the immunity developed after the disease caused by the primary coronavirus strain is highly effective against the British strain, which has certain mutations," she said, adding that these results inspire optimism.
Apart from that, according to Popova, the watchdog is keeping a close eye on relevant research in other countries. Thus, in her words, Belgian researchers used a computer model to prove that the new strain’s transmissibility is up by only 36%, rather than 70% as was believed earlier.
She also said that a new PCR testing system capable of identifying new strains is being tested.