MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. The Delta coronavirus strain is predominantly responsible for Russia's mortality rate recorded today, Anatoly Altstein, chief researcher at the Gamaleya Center, said at a press conference on Monday.

"There is no doubt that Omicron is less likely to produce severe cases. But you just have to keep in mind the peculiarity of this stage of the pandemic in Russia, we have a mixed bag, not only do we have Omicron, but we have Delta as well. And only on January 9 the curve of Delta and Omicron split. The fact is that the number of cases is now increasing because of Omicron, but here we also have Delta still in play, which has a greater pathogenicity and lethality, and those deaths that we are now seeing, come mainly from Delta, he underscored.

Speaking of post-COVID syndrome, Altstein added that there is no data yet on how Omicron plays out after infection. "I'm not exaggerating, but the pathogenic development of the disease [with different variants of coronavirus] is the same," Alexander Gorelov, deputy director of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing, added during a press conference.

In Russia, according to the federal anti-coronavirus crisis center, 10,834,260 cases of infection have been registered as of January 17, 2022, with 9,878,371 recoveries and 321,990 deaths. The Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation in the country.