MOSCOW, November 29. /TASS/. It will take around nine days to develop a testing system for identifying the new SARS-CoV-2 strain, Omicron, Veronika Skvortsova, chief of Russia’s Federal Medical Biological Agency, said on Monday.
"This strain is interesting by the fact that it has actually accrued mutations of the previous strains. In July, we registered a testing kit that identified all the previous variants. Now, it will not take us long to make a kit for Omicron, since it will take three to four days for designing and five days for the development of the testing system," she said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.
According to Skvortsova, the agency set a task to develop universal anti-viral medicines that would be effective against possible new mutations of the virus. "Our Institute of Immunology has developed such a medicine. It is Mir-19," she said, adding that it is effective against the Omicron variant.
On November 26, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated B.1.1.529 as a "Variant of Concern" and assigned it the Greek letter Omicron. It also said that the new variant has "a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning."
According to experts, several mutations in the virus’ S-protein are potentially capable of hampering the neutralization of the pathogen by antibodies and hence play down the efficacy of the current vaccines. The new variant potentially may also be more transmittable than other variants.