The omicron coronavirus variant is comparable to the Ebola virus in terms of the degree of threat to humanity, said Frank Ulrich Montgomery, chairman of the World Medical Association (WMA).

In an interview with German media, he said that the new SARS-COV-2 variant discovered in South Africa could become "as infectious as Delta and as dangerous as Ebola."

He noted that there is no exact data on the risks of the omicron mutation yet, but the virus is spreading very quickly.

Montgomery also said that at the start of the pandemic, the world had underestimated its magnitude.

According to the head of the WMA, he also believed that at the beginning of the spread of the virus, it was a type of flu.

Then, he continued, the world assumed it was possible to achieve herd immunity, after which the highly contagious variant of "delta" emerged.

Montgomery noted that now humanity realizes that it will have to continue to be vaccinated in the coming years.

Also on russian.rt.com The WHO announced the ability of PCR tests to detect a new strain of COVID-19 "omicron"

Recall that on November 25, it became known that scientists have identified a new strain of coronavirus in Botswana, South Africa and Hong Kong, which could potentially become the most dangerous variant of the coronavirus.

It was named B.1.1.529 and has an "incredibly high" number of mutations.

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said the omicron strain poses a “high to very high” risk

In the following days, many states announced the suspension of flights with several countries in South Africa.

Russia also made a similar decision, which will enter into force on November 28.

"From 00:00 on November 28, 2021, to restrict the entry into the territory of Russia of foreign citizens residing in the territory of the Republic of South Africa, the Republic of Botswana, the Kingdom of Lesotho, the Republic of Namibia, the Republic of Zimbabwe, the Republic of Mozambique, the Republic of Madagascar, the Kingdom of Eswatini, the United Republic of Tanzania" , - said in the statement of the headquarters.

Similar measures are being introduced with respect to residents of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and foreign citizens who have been in these territories within the last ten days.

At the same time, cases of infection with the omicron variant have already been identified in a number of European countries.

In particular, the strain was detected in a German resident who returned to his homeland from South Africa.

The Minister of Social Affairs of the Land of Hesse Kai Klose wrote about this on Twitter.

According to him, the sick person is isolated.

In addition, one of the laboratories in the Czech Republic is testing the possible appearance of the omicron variant.

Kamil Khafizov, head of the scientific group for the development of new diagnostic methods based on sequencing technologies at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, said that there is a possibility that a new strain of coronavirus could supplant the "delta" variant due to its active spread.

“Since this strain is actively spreading in some regions of South Africa and in a very short time, it seems, has displaced the“ delta ”, then there is such a possibility,” RIA Novosti quotes Khafizova.

He stressed that scientists are studying a new variant of COVID-19, including in terms of the possibility of neutralizing it with antibodies caused by both vaccination and a previous illness.

“We do not yet know how well this option will spread in countries with higher vaccination rates than in South Africa, where only 25% are fully vaccinated,” the scientist said.

In turn, Doctor of Biological Sciences, virologist Andrei Letarov expressed the opinion that existing vaccines will be able to protect against the new strain.

As Letarov noted, vaccine immunity is determined not only by neutralization.

"And, accordingly, there are other factors, and it is quite difficult to escape from it, so I assume that vaccination will still protect a person from a severe course, but how it really turns out there, let's wait for more detailed information," he said in an interview with the radio "Komsomolskaya Pravda".

Data on the incidence of COVID-19 in Russia

Over the past day, 33,946 cases of coronavirus were detected in Russia.

At the same time, 36,494 people fully recovered, 1,239 died from complications that developed against the background of COVID-19, and concomitant diseases.

Over the entire period of observations in the Russian Federation, 9,536,825 cases of coronavirus were detected.

271 531 deaths were recorded, 8 237 465 people recovered.

According to Rospotrebnadzor, over the entire period of the pandemic, more than 223.5 million laboratory tests for coronavirus were performed, including 581 thousand in the last day.

1,813,902 people remain under medical supervision.

The capital's headquarters reports that 3,430 new cases of coronavirus infection were detected in Moscow per day.

918 people were hospitalized, 96 patients died.

585 people are on mechanical ventilation in Moscow hospitals.