MOSCOW, February 11, 2021 (BSS/TASS( – The so-called British coronavirus strain will inevitably reach Russia in mid-spring, Yevgeny Timakov, chief physician of the Leader of Medicine medical center and specialist in infectious diseases and vaccines, told TASS on Thursday.
“The British strain will reach Russia sooner of later. It will be here, most likely, in mid-spring. So, if we ease coronavirus restrictions now, we will have another outbreak, which is undesirable. It will be here anyway but we should get prepared for it to avoid excessive loads on the public health system,” he said, adding that unlike other strains the British variant is much more contagious.
To date, 4,012,710 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 3,516,461 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 78,134 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.