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Coronavirus pandemic

Five cases of new Delta strain variant confirmed in Russia, says expert

The AY.4.2 variant was first discovered in Great Britain and is one of 45 sub-variants of the Delta strain

MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/. Five cases of the new coronavirus variant, AY.4.2, have been confirmed in Russia, including three in Moscow and two in the Republic of Tatarstan, Kamil Khafizov of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology said on Friday.

"To date, five isolated cases of the AY.4.2 subline of the coronavirus Delta strain with all significant genetic changes have been confirmed in Russia. Three of them were registered in Moscow and the Moscow region, and two others - in Kazan and the village of Bogatye Saby in the Republic of Tatarstan," he said.

According to Khafizov, the institutes of Russia’s sanitary watchdog and other government agencies are monitoring the pathogen variability to spot potential new variants of the virus.

The AY.4.2 variant was first discovered in Great Britain and is one of 45 sub-variants of the Delta strain. According to the Genetics Institute, University College London, the new strain may be 10-15% more contagious than the previous Delta variant.

Kamil Khafizov of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology told TASS on October 21 that isolated AY.4.2 cases had been confirmed in Russia. According to Khafizov, along with Great Britain and the Russian Federation, the new variant had been found in the United States and Israel.

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FACTBOX: Collective Security Treaty Organization

The Collective Security Treaty came into force on April 20, 1994 to herald the emergence what would eventually become the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The six member-countries are Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan

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