Virologists have discovered a new infectious strain of coronavirus AY.4.2 in St. Petersburg
It was sequenced back in September, when AY.4.2 could not be in Russia.
As Oksana Stanevich, an infectious disease specialist, an employee of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Medical Research of the European University, explained, Rospotrebnadzor did not take into account the errors in the operation of the special PANGO algorithm, which studies all strains sequenced in Russia.
“AY.4.2 is characterized by several key substitutions that are located in a certain place. It is these substitutions that are responsible for the high infectivity. But those viruses that were randomly announced by PANGO as AY.4.2 in Russia, in fact, do not have two key substitutions, like AY.4.2 in the UK, “Stanevich explained to Kommersant.
AY.4.2 contains two mutations in the spike protein that help it penetrate cells better. Dr. Jeffrey Barrett, director of the COVID-19 Genomics Initiative at the Senger Institute, and Professor François Ballou, director of the Institute of Genetics, University College London, suggested that AY.4.2 could be 10-15% more infectious than the delta variant.
On October 21, the head of the scientific group for the development of new methods for diagnosing human diseases at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, Kamil Khafizov, said that cases of infection with the AY.4.2 delta strain of coronavirus were registered in Russia. Like other delta strains, this variety can be more dangerous than the originally identified strains of COVID-19, the specialist explained.
The northern capital has updated the autumn maximum for hospitalizations of patients with COVID-19. Almost 600 cases were admitted to specialized hospitals with coronavirus and pneumonia, and mortality from infection began to grow against the background of a new anti-record in the country.
