ST. PETERSBURG, December 10. /TASS/. Russia found four whole-genome sequences of the Omicron variant after studying the cases of two infected people, a senior Russian sanitary official said on Friday.

"Four whole-genome sequences of the Omicron variant from two tourists have been deposited at the Russian SARS-CoV-2 (VGARus) genetic diversity base," Rinat Maksyutov, director general at the Vektor Center of the Russian sanitary watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said at the International Conference on Combating New Coronavirus Infection and Other Infectious Diseases.

Rospotrebnadzor said separately that two of the sequences were entered into the base by the agency, while the other two by the Gamaleya research center. There are still two Omicron patients, according to the agency.

The World Health Organization on November 26 assigned the Greek letter Omicron to coronavirus variant В.1.1.529 that was discovered in southern Africa. The WHO stated the variant has a large number of mutations, some of which cause concern. South Africa has the most Omicron cases, while the strain has been detected in a total of 57 countries. There’s no record yet of any deaths caused by the variant.

Russia on December 6 registered its first Omicron infections in Russians that arrived from South Africa.