The Delta variant is proving to be less deadly than other coronavirus mutations, Alexander Gorelov, deputy director of the Russian sanitary watchdog’s Central Research Institute of Epidemiology and a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said on Tuesday.
"It is not right to speak about a surge in fatalities because the current situation is cardinally different from the spring of 2020. <…> We are no longer groping around in the dark. So, now, even in the most serious cases the relative mortality rate is clearly lower, if compared with the same period the spring of 2020," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.
He also noted that the coronavirus infection "has grown younger," with most of the patients being aged from 14 to 29."
According to the latest statistics, around 191 million people have been infected worldwide and more than 4 million deaths have been reported.
To date, 6,006,536 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 5,382,213 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 149,922 fatalities nationwide. The Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.
