Specialist in communicable diseases calls on citizens over Omicron strain

There is no need to worry about the new coronavirus strain Omicron, Farrukh Sadirov, chief infectious disease specialist of the Clinical Medical Center, told Report.

"We have already seen the mutated variants such as Delta, Delta plus, Alpha, Beta. In no mutated variant, the mortality and morbidity rates (except for the Delta strain) did not differ significantly and were not high," he said.

In his opinion, it is too early to comment on the exact symptoms of the new strain.

“There are still insufficient clinical studies. However, there are opinions about the rapid spread of the new strain. Although research on the infectiousness index has not been completed, jumps in the number of infections and rapid growth figures have led to doubts that the strain would be more contagious, but this has not been scientifically proven.”

Commenting on the efficiency of the existing vaccines against the new mutation, the head of the department added that each vaccine protects people from serious illness and death by 90 percent: "This protection can also be applied to the Omicron strain.”

Experts have described the symptoms of the new strain as severe fatigue, rapid heartbeat, and high fever. The new strain contains 32 mutations and is therefore considered dangerous.