Russia has detected a formation of a Siberian variant of coronavirus as well as what it calls a “northwestern variant,” said Anna Popova, head of Russia's Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing, according to Russia state news agency TASS earlier this week.
On Monday, Popova said at least 192 cases of the UK coronavirus strain and more than 20 cases of the South African strain had been detected in Russia as of April 16, according to TASS.
"We isolated 192 samples of the British strain, 21 [samples] of the South African one and so far, [we] have not discovered any other mutations already described by other colleagues. Yet we do have mutations that we are describing in the Russian Federation, the mutations uncharacteristic so far of any strain described abroad,” Popova said.
“We have observed the formation of a Siberian variant, and the formation of a northwestern variant. And, as soon as the material will be ready for publication we will submit it to you," she added at a meeting of the department of medical sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
TASS reported that in November 2020, Russia reported the formation of a coronavirus variant in Siberia but at the time the sanitary watchdog said it was not exclusive only to Siberia and it was assumed to have been a variant that had already been spread abroad.
Russia is one of the worst affected countries in the Covid-19 pandemic with at least 4,736,121 cases of coronavirus infections and at least 107,103 deaths.