The viral load of Russians has increased – Kommersant FM

A mask regime is being introduced at the Government House, including due to an increase in the incidence of COVID-19; restrictions will begin to apply on September 18. RBC reported this with reference to two sources in the Cabinet of Ministers. At the same time, the Ministry of Health called the epidemiological situation stable. The department’s operational headquarters instructed the regions, if necessary, to introduce a mask regime in hospitals for medical staff. Rospotrebnadzor clarified that introducing restrictions is possible only if there are serious grounds for this.

The increase in incidence is associated with a new mutation of the “omicron”, a new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and this development of events was expected, noted the leading scientific editor of the Vrachu.ru portal Mikhail Kagan:

“It is clear that in Russia now, like in many other countries, in particular in the USA and Great Britain, there is a rise in COVID-19.

According to reports from Rospotrebnadzor and the sanitary departments of these states, it is clear that both the incidence and requests for emergency care have increased. This is to be expected because the virus continues to change.

The main thing it achieves through mutation is that it avoids previous immunity. So it is important to introduce new vaccines that have already been developed for these strains.

Such a drug is currently being developed in Russia, and the Ministry of Health has given permission to test vaccines adapted to the latest descendants of Omicron.

So the COVID-19 virus has not gone away, it exists with us. This is already a slightly off-season disease, and here everything is determined precisely by the sensitivity of the population as a whole to new strains. It turned out that it mutates much faster than the flu.

But, as a rule, people who do not have severe underlying medical conditions or are not very elderly are not very susceptible to these viruses. Therefore, the same thing that happened two years ago will not happen again, that’s for sure. But citizens at risk can become seriously ill.”

According to the operational headquarters, over the past week the incidence of COVID-19 in Russia has increased by almost 50% compared to the previous week. Thus, from September 4 to September 9 alone, over 7.5 thousand cases of infection were detected.

At the same time, there is currently no shortage of vaccines for both influenza and coronavirus in the country, says Boris Churadze, chief physician of the K+31 clinic network:

“September is the month when it is necessary to get a vaccine, primarily against influenza. Unfortunately, public concern about viral infections has decreased. But we periodically see quite severe forms of the disease.

So it is an immutable truth that vaccination is, in fact, the only way to control the spread and number of serious diseases in the population.

However, population immunity against influenza has declined somewhat as fewer people have been vaccinated against it in recent years. And now it is raising its head again, and I must say that this year it is very important to remember this and get vaccinated in a timely manner.

Moreover, all city clinics and private clinics have vaccines, as well as against coronavirus infection, so all that is needed here is consciousness and an active position.

After all, the incidence of COVID-19 is also increasing. Of course, the number of severe forms of the disease is not comparable, it is hundreds of times less than it was during the pandemic, but there are isolated cases both in Moscow and in the country.”

Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, answering a question about the possibility of introducing a mandatory mask regime, said that there are no new restrictions in the Kremlin.

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