OREANDA-NEWS. The symptoms of the Omicron coronavirus strain are no different from other variants of the virus, but pneumonia is a rare case among patients. Anatoly Altshtein, professor of virology at the Gamaleya Institute, told Izvestia about this on Wednesday, January 12.

“There is simply no one symptom that could immediately confirm that a person has a new Omicron strain. The symptoms of coronavirus are generally determined statistically, since most of the symptoms can be attributed to mild respiratory diseases - cough, runny nose, sore throat, fever. Only in a small number of patients the new strain descends into the lungs and can cause pneumonia, ”the specialist said.

At the same time, Altstein clarified that it is possible to determine whether a person has "Omicron" only with time, since he will begin to dominate over other diseases.

On December 30, the head of Rospotrebnadzor of the Russian Federation, Anna Popova, announced that the Omicron strain is spreading 3-5 times faster than other variants of infection. She also noted that the first manifestations of the disease in those infected with this strain are observed as early as 3-5 days after infection. At the same time, Popova said that post-vaccination immunity after Sputnik V is sufficient to curb the spread of Omicron.