The Minister of Health of the Russian Federation noted that despite a steady decrease in the incidence of COVID-19 in the world and in our country, the number of cases is still high. At the moment, more than 85 thousand people are receiving treatment due to COVID-19 in hospitals of our country; more than 600 thousand are receiving outpatient treatment. At the same time, due to the high contagiousness of the “omicron” sub-variant of the VA.2, called “stealth”, has every chance of soon becoming the predominant strain.
Scientific and clinical evidence suggests that people who have been vaccinated and revaccinated have significantly lower risks of disease and transmission of “stealth omicron”. Among people who have undergone booster vaccination, cases of the subvariant “omicron” VA.2 were not reported.
And even the past disease caused by “omicron” doesn’t provide reliable protection against a subvariant of “omicron” of VA.2, but vaccination and timely revaccination can provide that. Moreover, according to a number of studies, there were no cases of stealth omicron in the observation groups after booster vaccination.
— I want to emphasize that March and April remain key months on development of further epidemiological situation and it is best to use this time for revaccination, — the minister told.
He also noted that “stealth omicron” often affects children and adolescents.
— Already today we have an effective tool for their protection – a safe vaccine “Sputnik M”, — Mikhail Murashko said.