“The scenario in which the coronavirus will disappear completely is quite unlikely,” Khafizova was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.
According to him, "almost all experts agree that the virus will remain with us forever and will periodically cause waves of morbidity around the world."
Earlier, Khafizov said that there were practically no infected with the delta coronavirus strain in Russia, but it could return.
Immunologist Nikolay Kryuchkov, an expert on public health and drug licensing, said that a subspecies of the omicron BA.2 strain that caused the outbreak in Shanghai has been circulating in Russia for a long time.