MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/. The infection with some new coronavirus strains may potentially lead to a more severe course of the disease, Sergey Avdeev, chair of the pulmonology department at Moscow’s Sechenov Medical University and chief non-resident pulmonologist of the Russian Health Ministry, told TASS on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, the virus is mutating and during mutation it displays more aggressive properties, such as transmissibility. A higher transmissibility of 50-60% is associated with the Indian, or the Delta, strain. And, probably, today it is possible to draw cautious conclusions on a more severe course upon the infection with some new mutated strains," the expert said.

According to him, work is currently underway on sequencing the virus with the Indian strain of the coronavirus gradually spreading in Russia.

"We have the statistics that the Influenza Institute (the Smorodintsev Research Institute of Influenza of the Russian Healthcare Ministry - TASS) is accumulating, that is, the work on sequencing the virus is underway, <...> 30% of strains in Russia today [represent] the Indian strain. It is being spread rather uniformly. I don’t have the exact statistics <...>, but 30% is the total number, the share of what is circulating in Russia," the expert noted.