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Coronavirus pandemic

No Omicron-related deaths registered among laboratory animals — expert

Omicron variant was identified in South Africa on November 26

MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. No deaths from the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 have been registered among laboratory animals, deputy director of the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, the vaccine developer, Denis Logunov, said on Tuesday.

"We see that the strain is less pathogenic. Moreover, the Gamaleya Center’s own studies demonstrate, and the data corresponds to the results foreign colleagues share, that this strain is less lethal for laboratory animals. We have several models: golden hamsters, transgenic mice with human receptors <…>. Both models show that the animals catch the disease, lose weight but the fatality among the animals is zero. So far, we have seen no mortality in the experiment," he said in an interview with the Solovyov Live YouTube channel.

Touching on Omicron’s specifics, the expert noted several positive aspects. "Based on the data that has been published either in the mass media or in scientific periodicals, we observe several positive aspects. The negative aspects include its rapid spread - it is more transmittable than all other previous strains. Positive aspects are the number of hospitalizations among those infected is nearly three times lower, from 2.5 to three times, according to various data in South Africa and Britain. The number of serious cases among those hospitalized is also some 2.9 times lower. This is the data from South Africa only. The mortality from this virus among those hospitalized is down by 4.17 times," Logunov said, adding that it is too early to compare mortality from flu and Omicron.

On November 26, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated the B.1.1.529 variant identified in South Africa as a "Variant of Concern" and assigned it the Greek letter omicron. In its statement, the WHO noted that "this variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning." The new variant has been identified in more than 100 countries. According to Russia’s sanitary watchdog, there were 103 Omicron cases in Russia as of December 30, 2021.

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