"Showed high reliability of results": a test for the detection of the British strain of coronavirus was registered in Russia

The Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare has registered the first test system in Russia to detect two mutations characteristic of the so-called British SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus strain.

According to the head of Roszdravnadzor Alla Samoilova, the analysis is carried out by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method.

The head of the department noted that the test was developed on the basis of the National Research Center for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology named after Kulakov of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation in conjunction with the DNA-technology company.

"The test system ... during the tests showed high efficiency and reliability of the results," said Samoilova, who called the creation and launch of this product a great success of Russian scientists.

Last week, the chief sanitary doctor of the Russian Federation Anna Popova said on the air of the Russia 1 TV channel that today the British strain is practically not spreading in the country.

“We are closely following this among those who, having returned from any, from any trip, fell ill, showed some symptoms.

And so far these are isolated finds, "said the head of Rospotrebnadzor, adding that the domestic vaccines Sputnik V and EpiVacCorona have shown their effectiveness against this mutation of the coronavirus.

This information was confirmed by the director of the "Vector" center Rinat Maksyutov and the head of the Gamaleya center Alexander Gintsburg.

In addition, the third registered Russian vaccine against coronavirus "KoviVac", developed by the Chumakov Center, according to its director Aidar Ishmukhametov, will also be effective against various strains of SARS-CoV-2.

On Saturday, February 20, during a government meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova announced that 7.9 million sets of doses of the drug have already been produced in Russia for vaccination of the population (most of them are "Sputnik V").

According to preliminary estimates, in the first half of the year, 59 million vaccine kits will be available to Russians.

She said that the number of vaccination stations in the country reached 4129, and drew particular attention to the need to be attentive to elderly citizens and Russians with chronic diseases during vaccination.

“Today, in the Russian Federation as a whole, the proportion of vaccinated citizens over 60 years old is 45%.

Nevertheless, we believe these indicators are still insufficient and we ask the regions to increase this position, ”Golikova emphasized.

In turn, the head of the Cabinet of Ministers Mikhail Mishustin emphasized that the increase in production volumes should in no way affect the quality of the drugs produced.

"So that the reduction of the time required for quality control, for release into civilian circulation, was absolutely scientifically justified and ... did not affect the quality," the prime minister emphasized.

The vaccination campaign against coronavirus in the Russian Federation started in December 2020, and on January 18, 2021, mass vaccination began - also free of charge and on a voluntary basis.

The situation in Russia and in the world

Over the past day, 12,742 new cases of coronavirus infection were detected in Russia, 16,012 patients recovered and 417 died from complications caused by COVID-19 and concomitant diseases.

Most of all new cases were traditionally detected in Moscow (1602), St. Petersburg (996), Moscow (735), Nizhny Novgorod (411) and Voronezh regions (329), but in all these regions there is a tendency towards a decrease in the average daily incidence rate.

In total, since the beginning of the pandemic in the country, the diagnosis was confirmed in 4,164,726 people, of which 3,713,445 (89.16%) recovered, 83,293 (2%) died.

Thus, 367 988 cases of the disease (8.84%) remain active.

Over the month, this figure has decreased by almost a third (as of January 22, there were more than 527 thousand active cases of COVID-19 in Russia).

According to Rospotrebnadzor, over 109 million laboratory tests were carried out in the country for the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, and as of February 19, about 595 thousand people remained under medical supervision.

According to the World Health Organization, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 episodes in the world has exceeded 110.6 million (according to the American Johns Hopkins University - 111.1 million).

More than 2.45 million cases have died.

Both estimates suggest that the average daily number of cases globally is gradually falling, but many countries have seen an increase over the past week.

This applies to Austria, Hungary, India, Iraq, Moldova, Paraguay, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, Finland, Czech Republic, Estonia and a number of other countries.

• © WHO