The incidence of coronavirus in Russia will increase after the New Year holidays, but in general, the dynamics of distribution will decline. This opinion was expressed in an interview with Izvestia by Pavel Volchkov, head of the MIPT genomic engineering laboratory.
According to his forecast, in the second half of the month there will be an increase in the social activity of citizens, in connection with which the daily rates of new cases of infection will grow. Nevertheless, these values will not be higher than the December ones. Also, this process will not be as dramatic as in the spring and autumn, when children en masse went to school.
Volchkov noted that the New Year holidays helped to stop the spread of the infection. “Some complain about the long New Year’s holidays, but the holidays have partly become a protective measure. Due to these days, which many have actually spent in self-isolation, the epidemiological period that began in the fall has burst,” he explained. Thus, any reduction in social contacts always has a positive effect on epidemic statistics.
Three factors will affect the overall decrease in the incidence: an increase in the number of people who have been ill, quarantine measures at various levels and mass vaccination.
Over the past day, 22,851 cases of coronavirus infection have been detected in Russia, the total number of those infected since the beginning of the pandemic has reached 3,401,954. Over the entire period, 61,837 deaths were recorded, 2,778,889 people recovered.