MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/. The specific strain of the coronavirus infection a patient has cannot be determined without conducting laboratory tests, infectious disease specialist Nikolay Malyshev told TASS.

"At a patient’s bedside, it is very difficult [to tell apart] Omicron and Delta. It is possible to suspect it but it is very difficult to diagnose and one cannot do without a laboratory," he said.

According to the expert, the clinical manifestations of both strains are very similar.

According to the latest data from the anti-coronavirus crisis center, the Omicron strain has already been registered in 64 Russian regions compared to 57 last Friday. The share of this version and other "non-dominating strains" has increased from 47.7% to 48.3% of detected cases while the share of the dominating Delta strain has decreased to 51.7%.