MOSCOW, September 20. /TASS/. No cases of infection with a new pirola variant of the coronavirus have been recorded in Russia, an expert of the Russian sanitary watchdog’s research institute, Natalya Pshenichnaya told the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

"This gene variant has not yet been detected in the Russia," said Pshenichnaya, deputy director for clinical and analytical work at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing.

The expert noted that the pirola gene variant is not more contagious. "First of all, it is not more contagious, it is still the same omicron, just, to say again, its variant. Initially there was panic that it was more contagious, but subsequently scientists from Sweden and China disproved that," she added.

The expert also pointed out that several cases of flu have already been detected in Russia. "According to the Research Institute of Influenza, only a few cases of [influenza] have been identified. It is <...> morbidity, which is observed in the inter-epidemic period, there are single cases which usually proceed lightly," she noted.

She did not rule out that the rise in flu incidence in Russia this year will start earlier than usual, probably before New Year's Eve.