In Russia, over the past day, 27,434 new cases of coronavirus infection were detected, of which the largest number was in Moscow (2,283), St. Petersburg (1997) and the Moscow region (1,683).

During this time, 38,041 people have fully recovered, 1,076 have died.

The total number of COVID-19 cases registered in the country has reached 10,186,823.Since the beginning of the pandemic, 8,952,266 patients have been cured in Russia, and 296,180 people have died.

According to Rospotrebnadzor, more than 234 million laboratory tests were carried out in the country during the pandemic to detect COVID-19.

According to the portal "stopkoronavirus.rf", in Russia more than 76.5 million people were vaccinated with the first component of the drug against coronavirus, over 70.8 million people were fully vaccinated.

The herd immunity rate to COVID-19 in the country is 58.2%.

In the capital, more than 6.1 million people were fully vaccinated, more than 6.6 million were vaccinated with the first component.

"The spread of the new omicron strain causes our concern, and we again strongly recommend vaccinating those who, for some reason, have not done so yet, and those who were vaccinated or had been ill six months ago - also come to the vaccination station," she said Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova.

She stressed that the New Year holidays should not lead to a new round of morbidity in Russia.

"It is imperative to comply with restrictive measures and conduct events in the COVID-free mode," added the Deputy Prime Minister.

Distribution of the omicron strain

According to Golikova, Russian scientists are testing the effectiveness of domestic vaccines against coronavirus against the omicron strain, the procedure will take "two to three weeks."

“We check the variability, we look at how it (the strain) changes, how it behaves.

All scientific institutions that developed vaccines and whose vaccines are now circulating on the Russian market, they are now testing the effectiveness of our vaccines, the level of impact, ”she said.

At the same time, the scientists of the Center.

The Gamaleys reported that the Sputnik V vaccine protects against severe disease.

In addition, the use of a dose of Sputnik Light six months after vaccination increases protection for those who were initially vaccinated with other drugs. 

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“The vaccination scheme, which about 5-6 months ago was proposed in the Russian Federation by the Ministry of Health of our country, the meaning of which is that after vaccination with Sputnik V, six months later, revaccination with Sputnik Light is proposed - this vaccination scheme gives today, on the sample that was analyzed, complete protection against the omicron strain, ”said the head of the center, Alexander Gintsburg.

He added that scientists will recommend to the Ministry of Health to use the previous strategy to combat the virus and "focus on universal vaccination."

Gunzburg also added that the Center.

Gamalei has the technology to create vaccines against new strains of COVID-19 that will protect against all antigens.

"If there are many antigenic strains circulating in the population at the same time, then we have developed technologies for this case, which are also now being tested at other facilities at the level of clinical trials, but which can be instantly switched to coronavirus," TASS quoted him as saying ...

The Russian Direct Investment Fund also said that Sputnik V showed a high neutralizing ability against the omicron strain of coronavirus during laboratory research.

The Foundation confirmed that the use of Sputnik Light as a booster vaccine significantly increases the effectiveness against omicron. 

The head of the Ministry of Health, Mikhail Murashko, also noted the good virus-neutralizing activity of Sputnik V against the new variant of the virus.

“In the conditions of the spread of new strains, timely revaccination plays a very important role in the formation of effective protection.

The omicron strain is distinguished by a large number of mutations, it is more infectious, ”the TASS minister was quoted as saying.

Against the background of the spread of this strain, Murashko recalled the need to observe the mask regime and social distance. 

The head of the Ministry of Health noted that Russia has not yet completely overcome the fourth wave of coronavirus.

“There is still a large number of cases under observation.

Therefore, revaccination and compliance with anti-epidemic measures are extremely important to reduce morbidity and mortality, ”he stressed.