SARATOV, April 20. /TASS/. The Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing ("Rospotrebnadzor") sees a risk of the increased incidence of infections with the Arcturus COVID-19 subvariant at the end of May, agency head Anna Popova said while on a working visit to Saratov on Thursday.

"The course [of the disease], generally, as an acute respiratory viral infection, does not require a high share of hospitalizations. Yet we are ready, the healthcare system is ready for additional strain and overload. We see the risks of a further rise [in incidences] by the end of May. The vacation season is starting, then people will get together and we may very well see a surge," the top public health official said. "We have verified our tests, and they have all been prepared in such a way that they detect a new gene variant exactly the same way as the chain of its predecessors," she told reporters.

According to her, to date four infections with the Arcturus subvariant have been confirmed in Russia. "It will undoubtedly spread because the virus is contagious," Popova added.

The new subvariant is highly contagious and can bypass a person’s previously formed immunity. "The rate of contagiousness is very high; its transmissibility is higher than that of its predecessors. Any minor contact leads to an infection and the development of the disease. <...> We are still studying this virus but already now, according to the data of foreign researchers, it can circumvent immunity that was formed earlier," Popova said.

Currently, Arcturus, a new mutation of Omicron, is prevalent in India, where it makes up almost 90% of all infections, she noted.

The new XBB 1.16 coronavirus subvariant, dubbed Arcturus, which is a new mutation of the Omicron strain, will not trigger a high incidence of the disease in Russia or worldwide, senior researcher Anatoly Altshtein of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology told TASS on Thursday.

"Currently, there is a small rise in incidence related to this strain in India. We are talking about 8,000-10,000 daily cases [of infection]. Judging from the fact that the general incidence has not been growing significantly in recent days, it is unlikely to think that this is a very dangerous variant that will do something similar to what happened a year ago," he said.

The researcher specified that 100,000-200,000 daily infections in Russia are unlikely.