Russia sees mutations of the coronavirus popping up in Siberia. That said the head of the Russian consumer interests regulator Tuesday.

 

The country reported a record 442 deaths in a day from Covid-19 on the same day.

“We see certain changes in Siberia that make it possible to assume that in this region it forms its own version with specific mutations,” said Anna Popova, head of regulator Rospotrebnadzor.

Popova did not provide details of how contagious or deadly the mutation would be but said it would not make the virus more dangerous.

Tests with Russia’s second Covid-19 vaccine, developed by the Vector Institute in Siberia, are currently underway, Popova confirmed. Authorities said last week that they would start last Sunday.

Mutations of the coronavirus cannot affect the effectiveness of the vaccine, said Director-General of the Vector Institute, Rinat Makshutov.

A US study in September found little evidence that mutations in the virus make it more deadly. The severity of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, is more closely related to the patient’s underlying medical conditions and genetics, the researchers concluded.

With 1.97 million infections since the start of the pandemic, Russia has the fifth largest number of cases in the world, after the United States, India, Brazil and France. Russia’s total death toll stands at 33,931.