Arcturus does not promise to outshine its predecessors

In Russia, the first cases of infection with Arcturus, a new subspecies of coronavirus, have been identified, which, having appeared in India, led to a large-scale increase in incidence rates in that country. In this regard, in a conversation with Kommersant, one of the experts predicted “a slight increase in the number of patients in about a month” in the Russian Federation. However, doctors are in solidarity with the fact that the next kind of “omicron” will not radically change the clinical picture and will be easily tolerated by the sick. Rospotrebnadzor has already announced that it does not plan to introduce additional security measures in connection with the identification of Arcturus.

On Wednesday, doctors issued a statement that three new cases of infection with a subvariant of the coronavirus XBB 1.16 (“Arctur”) were found in Moscow. A fresh mutation of the Omicron strain “in close cooperation with the Moscow City Health Department in three samples from patients from Moscow” was identified by specialists from the Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after N.N. N. F. Gamalei. Vladimir Gushchin, head of the laboratory of mechanisms of population variability of pathogenic microorganisms of the center, said that in comparison with the previously circulating variants of the Omicron strain, the newcomer contains additional mutations in the genome, which presumably affect the infectiousness of the disease caused.

“The Gamaleya Center is conducting further research to assess the biological risks of the spread of XBB.1.16 and other variants,” Mr. Gushchin told reporters, assuring, however, that a person infected with Arcturus gets sick relatively easily.

According to official data, the incidence of covid in Russia has decreased over the past week by 14% to 49.5 thousand cases. Most of them are still accounted for by omicron genovariants. Recall that for the first time an outbreak of covid morbidity was recorded in China in December 2019. To date, more than 762 million cases have been confirmed worldwide, nearly 7 million of which have been fatal.

The spread of coronavirus occurred in waves with the emergence of new strains and subvariants of the disease. So, one of the predecessors of “arcturus” was “kraken”. Discovered in New York at the end of 2022, HBB 1.15 (“kraken”) was called the most contagious subspecies of “omicron”. In January, when the “kraken” appeared in Russia, Alexander Gintsburg, director of the N. F. Gamaleya Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, noted that “dozens of different strains of coronavirus” are circulating in the Russian Federation. They, according to Mr. Gunzburg, are very different from the original version of the “omicron”, as they arose as a result of the genetic exchange of different variants of the virus: “Therefore, calling them “omicron” is not entirely correct, this is a genetically complete exchange, in fact, “children” of two strains” .

The arctur sub-variant was first identified in January 2023 in India, and at the end of March, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified this omicron variant as a “Variant Under Surveillance” (VUM). Of all the statuses that WHO assigns to coronavirus mutations, this one is given to subspecies “with genetic changes that affect the characteristics of the virus as a whole” and are found in more than one region. There is no evidence of the severity of the epidemiological impact of the sub-option, the WHO says, so it requires enhanced monitoring. It should be noted that in India, the incidence of covid in April rose to the highest rates in the past six months. Also, the virus has already begun to spread in the United States, Singapore, Canada and other countries.

Rospotrebnadzor reported that Arcturus was found in Russia a day earlier.

The department noted that “according to preliminary data, Arcturus may be more contagious, but not highly pathogenic.”

“This is one of hundreds of varieties of the omicron line, no cardinal differences from other variants have been identified,” Sergey Voznesensky, associate professor of the Department of Infectious Diseases at RUDN University, described Arcturus in a conversation with Kommersant. According to him, the identification of new mutations of one strain is of importance only for scientists involved in research on the coronavirus genome. “This is important for tracking changes and understanding the direction in which the virus is developing,” he says. “This information has no practical value for ordinary people.”

Although the virus has become more active, but, based on information coming from countries where it has already spread, there is no worsening of the clinical picture and an increase in mortality, Yevgeny Timakov, chief physician of the Leader Medicine clinic, told Kommersant.

“We are talking about a sublinear “omicron”, which means that there are no strong mutations – this is a new, more stable state of the strain,” the infectious disease specialist believes. Mr. Timakov does not predict a pronounced increase in the incidence in Russia either: “A slight rise can be expected in about a month, as the virus takes some time to spread, but then it will simply crowd out the current subspecies.” According to the infectious disease specialist, in general, “the same sluggish situation that we have had since autumn will continue.” Almost the entire population of Russia has already been ill with coronavirus in a natural way, the physician continued, and “given that more than 60% of Russians have been vaccinated,” we can say that citizens have developed a combined immunity against the disease, which will make it easy to transfer new subspecies of “omicron”.

Rospotrebnadzor also believes that “the introduction of any anti-epidemic restrictions in connection with the identification of a new sub-variant of coronavirus in the Russian Federation is not required.”

Polina Yachmennikova