MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/. The Indian strain of the mutated novel coronavirus is most widely spread in Moscow and also the Nizhni Novgorod and Saratov regions, with a certain uptrend observed in St. Petersburg, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said at President Vladimir Putin's conference with government members on Wedneesday.
"The past few weeks have seen an increase in the share of the Indian strain. In some regions of the country it prevails. In the first place, this is so in Moscow, the regions of Nizhni Novgorod and Saratov. In St. Petersburg the circulation of the virus has developed an uptrend," Golikova said.
She stressed that Russians aged 20 to 49 were most prone to infection with the Indian strain.
"The findings of international and our own researchers indicate that the strain Delta has a higher contagiousness," she said.
According to the latest statistics, more than 178.8 million people have been infected worldwide and more than 3,800,000 deaths have been reported. To date, 5,350,919 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 4,889,450 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 130,347 fatalities nationwide. The Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.