German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach admitted a possible emergence of new mutations of the coronavirus in the future.
Report informs citing TASS that he explained that the emergence of new strains of coronavirus is associated with the high incidence of COVID-19, which is being currently observed.
“At the moment, the virus has the best conditions for further development. The fact that such a large number of infections will not cause mutations is unthinkable from an epidemiological point of view,” Lauterbach said.
In January, the omicron strain of coronavirus became dominant in Germany.
According to the Robert Koch Institute of Virology (under the German Health Ministry), the number of confirmed new cases of coronavirus infection in Germany has increased by 169,571 over the past day. Since the beginning of the epidemic, the infection has been detected in 11,287,428 residents. Some 177 patients died in the country within 24 hours from the consequences of the disease caused by the coronavirus. The total number of deaths in Germany over the entire period of the pandemic reached 118,943. The seven-day rate of the spread of coronavirus in Germany (the number of cases of infection per 100,000 people during the week) reached a new record value and amounted to 1,441,000.