Russia Says Virus Mutations Appearing in Siberia as Deaths Hit Record Daily High

FILE PHOTO: Medical specialists wearing protective gear push a stretcher while relocating a non-transparent bag, which presumably contains a human body, outside a hospital for patients infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia May 12, 2020. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Medical specialists wearing protective gear push a stretcher while relocating a non-transparent bag, which presumably contains a human body, outside a hospital for patients infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia May 12, 2020. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva/File Photo
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Russia Says Virus Mutations Appearing in Siberia as Deaths Hit Record Daily High

FILE PHOTO: Medical specialists wearing protective gear push a stretcher while relocating a non-transparent bag, which presumably contains a human body, outside a hospital for patients infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia May 12, 2020. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Medical specialists wearing protective gear push a stretcher while relocating a non-transparent bag, which presumably contains a human body, outside a hospital for patients infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia May 12, 2020. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva/File Photo

Mutations in the coronavirus are appearing in Siberia, the head of Russia's consumer health watchdog said on Tuesday, as the country reported a record daily high of 442 deaths from COVID-19.

"We see certain changes...in Siberia which allow us to assume that in this region it is forming its own version with specific mutations," Anna Popova, head of Rospotrebnadzor, was quoted as saying by news agencies.

Popova did not give details on how contagious or deadly the mutation was considered to be but said it would not make the virus more dangerous, Reuters reported.

Post-registration trials of Russia's second COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Siberia's Vector Institute, were now underway, Popova confirmed. Authorities said last week they were due to begin last Sunday.

Mutations of the coronavirus could not influence the vaccine's effectiveness, the Vector Institute's director general, Rinat Maksyutov, was quoted as saying by TASS.

A US study in September found little evidence that mutations in the virus have made it deadlier, saying that the severity of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, was more strongly linked to patients' underlying medical conditions and genetics.

Clinical trials of the vaccine, called EpiVacCorona, could now be carried out with volunteers over the age of 60, a state register showed and the institute's director said trials with children would begin in December, TASS reported.

A six-month Phase III trial started on Monday, involving 180 participants, according to the register.

In Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin extended a remote learning period for secondary school children from classes 6-11 by two more weeks to Dec. 6, a restriction he said had been effective in preventing the spread of the virus from young people to elderly relatives.

The city's health department said on Monday it had sent doctors to the Urals city of Yekaterinburg to help with the fight against COVID-19 there, something it did for other regions during the first wave of the virus in May.

With 1,971,013 infections since the start of the pandemic, Russia has the fifth largest number of cases in the world behind the United States, India, Brazil and France. Russia's national death toll stands at 33,931.



Zelenskiy Says He Wants Half Ukraine’s Weapons to Be Produced Domestically

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy inspects newest samples of military equipment and weapons, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv region, Ukraine, April 13, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy inspects newest samples of military equipment and weapons, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv region, Ukraine, April 13, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters)
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Zelenskiy Says He Wants Half Ukraine’s Weapons to Be Produced Domestically

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy inspects newest samples of military equipment and weapons, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv region, Ukraine, April 13, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy inspects newest samples of military equipment and weapons, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv region, Ukraine, April 13, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that he was counting on his new incoming government to take measures to boost the proportion of weapons made at home to 50% within six months.

Zelenskiy has carried out a political reshuffle this week, nominating as his new prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko, the driving force behind a minerals deal with the United States. Outgoing prime minister Denys Shmyhal has been put forward as the new defense minister.

The nominations, which require parliamentary approval, came as diplomatic efforts to end the war with Russia, now in its fourth year, have stalled and as Ukraine seeks to revive its cash-strapped economy and build up a domestic arms industry.

Zelenskiy said he, Shmyhal and outgoing defense minister Rustem Umerov had decided at a meeting on Wednesday that the defense ministry would have "greater influence in the domain of arms production".

"Ukrainian-made weapons now make up about 40% of those used at the front and in our operations," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. "This is already significantly more than at any time in our country's independence. The production volumes are truly large, but we need more.

"Our goal is to reach 50% Ukrainian-made weaponry within the first six months of the new government, by expanding our domestic production. I am confident this is achievable, though not easy."

Zelenskiy has long stressed the importance of boosting domestic production of weapons and developing joint production of weaponry with Ukraine's Western partners.

It has focused on drone production and on providing air defenses to withstand intensifying Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities. Zelenskiy has in recent weeks stressed the importance of developing drone interceptors as a rational way of tackling swarms of drones.

Kyiv's military authorities last week announced the allocation of $6.2 million for a drone interceptor program to defend the capital's skies from Russian drones.