New coronavirus strains will be less pathogenic but more infectious, as evidenced by the emergence of omicron, said Mikhail Shchelkanov, Head of the Department of Epidemiology of the School of Biomedicine of the Far Eastern Federal University, Report informs, citing RIA Novosti.

"It is unprofitable for any parasite to kill the host, so the evolution of the coronavirus will proceed in this direction: the more mutations accumulate, the higher the likelihood that it will be less pathogenic, less virulent, and the higher the likelihood that the virus will be more contagious, that is, infectious. And it will get worse and worse in the lower parts of the respiratory tract and better and better in the upper ones. This is what we see in the case of omicron. It does not mean that omicron is completely safe - it is still dangerous, there are fatal cases. Therefore, it is still necessary to vaccinate," Shchelkanov said.

He clarified that the same trend would be observed in subsequent genetic variants of the COVID-19 pathogen.

https://report.az/en/health/virologist-new-strains-of-coronavirus-to-be-less-pathogenic/