MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/. No cases of the Iota coronavirus strain have been recorded in Russia so far, the national sanitary watchdog’s State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology Vector said in a statement on Wednesday.
"No cases of the Iota variant have been recorded in Russia," the statement reads. According to the Vector center, the Delta coronavirus strain is now taking the place of all other mutations and nothing suggests that the new Iota strain will spread widely. "The Iota variant has been under observation since November 2020 and has been detected in 43 countries. However, no significant growth has been recorded," the research center explained, adding that the United States accounted for the majority of Iota cases.
"Apart from other things, the Iota variant has demonstrated reduced susceptibility to the blood serum of recovered coronavirus patients and vaccinated people, as well as to monoclonal antibodies. The available data is not enough to say that the Iota variant is more dangerous than others," the center added.
The medRxiv website earlier published a reprint of an article based on research conducted by the New York City Department of Health and Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, which said that the transmissibility of the Iota coronavirus strain, first discovered in New York City in the fall of 2020, was 15-25% higher compared to other variants.