OREANDA-NEWS. In Russia, a new strain of coronavirus "deltacron" has not yet been identified. This was announced by the head of the scientific group of genetic engineering and biotechnology of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Cherkashina in an interview with Interfax.

About 30 such genomes are currently registered in the GISAID international virus genome database. This indicates only isolated cases of this strain in the world. That is, it is still too early to talk about the widespread use of deltacron in the world, Cherkashina noted.

She added that Russian scientists are studying the genetic diversity of circulating coronavirus genovariants in Russia.

“Just by the fact that deltacron is spreading rather sluggishly, it can be assumed that it is not more infectious than other strains,” the expert said.

Earlier, Anatoly Altshtein, chief researcher at the Gamaleya Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, warned the Russians that a new substrain of omicron BA.2, discovered in China, could be more contagious than its predecessors due to many mutations.

According to the virologist, the activity of the “son of omicron” may be the cause of a new outbreak of coronavirus in China. BA.2 has been identified in countries such as the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Switzerland. However, in the states of Eastern Europe, this substrain has not yet been recorded.

The specialist also noted that the COVID-19 “deltacrone” variant has almost become obsolete, but BA.2, apparently, “is just coming into its own.”