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.



The Conclave to Choose the Next Pope Will Be the Most Geographically Diverse in History

FILE - Italian Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, center, takes an oath at the beginning of the conclave to elect the next pope in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, Monday, April 18, 2005. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano via AP, File)
FILE - Italian Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, center, takes an oath at the beginning of the conclave to elect the next pope in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, Monday, April 18, 2005. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano via AP, File)
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The Conclave to Choose the Next Pope Will Be the Most Geographically Diverse in History

FILE - Italian Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, center, takes an oath at the beginning of the conclave to elect the next pope in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, Monday, April 18, 2005. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano via AP, File)
FILE - Italian Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, center, takes an oath at the beginning of the conclave to elect the next pope in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, Monday, April 18, 2005. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano via AP, File)

There is no rule that cardinals electing a new pope vote a certain way according to their nationality or region. But understanding their makeup in geographic terms can help explain some of their priorities as they open the conclave Wednesday to choose a new leader of the 1.4-billion strong Catholic Church.

A cardinal who heads the Vatican’s liturgy office might have a very different set of concerns from the archbishop of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. A cardinal who runs a large European archdiocese with hundreds of priests likely has other priorities than the Vatican ambassador ministering to war-torn Syria or the archbishop of Managua, Nicaragua, whose church has been under siege by the government.

There are currently 135 cardinals who are under age 80 and eligible to vote in the conclave, hailing from 71 different countries in the most geographically diverse conclave in history. Already two have formally told the Holy See that they cannot attend for health reasons, bringing the number of men who will enter the Sistine Chapel down to 133.

A two-thirds majority is needed to be elected pope, meaning that if the number of electors holds at 133, the winner must secure 89 votes.

The countries with the most electors are: Italy (17), United States (10), Brazil (7), France and Spain (5), Argentina, Canada, India, Poland and Portugal (4).

Here is a regional breakdown of the full 135 cardinal electors, according to Vatican statistics and following the Vatican’s geographic grouping.

Europe: 53. (An elector who says he's skipping the conclave is from Spain, so the actual number of Europeans is expected to be 52.)

Asia (including the Middle East): 23

Africa: 18. (Another elector who says he's skipping the conclave is from Kenya, so the number of Africans is expected to be 17.)

South America: 17

North America: 16 (of whom 10 are American, 4 are Canadian and 2 are Mexican)

Central America: 4

Oceania: 4 (1 each from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga)