MOSCOW (Reuters). Russia has reported isolated cases of COVID-19 in Russia with a subvariant variant of the Delta variant, which is thought to make it more contagious. This was confirmed by the senior researcher at the state consumer watchdog.

Kamil Khafizov (researcher) stated that the AY.4.2 variant may be 10% more infective than the original Delta – which is driving new cases and death to a string of record daily highs across Russia – and could eventually replace it.

But he stated that this would likely be a slow process.

He said that vaccines were effective enough to protect against the current virus.

The AY.4.2 Subvariant in England is on an even higher trajectory. It had already accounted to about 6% for all sequences produced on the week of Sept. 27, according to a UK Health Security Agency Report released Oct. 15.

On Wednesday, Sajid Javid, British Health Minister said that there is no reason for subvariants to pose a greater risk than Delta.

Russian immunologist Nikolay Kryuchkov claimed that Delta and subvariants of it would continue to be dominant. He also said that they might adapt in some future ways to vaccines.

He said, “But, it seems that a revolution jump will not occur, because the coronavirus has an evolutionary limit and the evolutionary leap has already occurred.”

Russian officials did not respond immediately to my request for comment.

Moscow’s mayor announced Thursday the most stringent lockdown measures since June last year. This was just a day after President Vladimir Putin approved the government proposal to close down the workplace for one week at the beginning of November. [L1N2RH0MC]