MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/. Moscow COVID patients carry not the Wuhan coronavirus strain, but a new mutation, which complicates the situation and fight against the pandemic, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said Thursday.

"Unfortunately, the thing that we fought against last year - the Chinese virus, the Wuhan one - is almost absent in Moscow today; instead, there is a new mutation, new active strain. It pierces the human immunity much more effectively," Sobyanin said during his meeting with the catering business.

He underscored that the new challenge complicates both the epidemiological and economic situation.

"You see the dynamic of the incidence growth; moreover, the amount of hospitalizations also increases very rapidly. The new strain carries higher [rate of difficult cases], which means more hospitalizations, more beds required, more hospitals, and the fight will be more difficult," the Mayor said.