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.



Türkiye Arrests Five Mayors from CHP Opposition Party 

Residential buildings and business towers are seen in the city's Kagithane and Sariyer districts in Istanbul, Türkiye, May 30, 2025. (Reuters)
Residential buildings and business towers are seen in the city's Kagithane and Sariyer districts in Istanbul, Türkiye, May 30, 2025. (Reuters)
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Türkiye Arrests Five Mayors from CHP Opposition Party 

Residential buildings and business towers are seen in the city's Kagithane and Sariyer districts in Istanbul, Türkiye, May 30, 2025. (Reuters)
Residential buildings and business towers are seen in the city's Kagithane and Sariyer districts in Istanbul, Türkiye, May 30, 2025. (Reuters)

Turkish police arrested five opposition mayors early Wednesday alongside 17 others as part of a probe into corruption allegations at CHP-held municipalities, a party spokesman told AFP.

The latest arrests targeted a former lawmaker and three CHP mayors in Istanbul, and two more in the southern province of Adana, the spokesman said.

The latest round of arrests brings to nine the total number of jailed CHP mayors, including Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu -- the main political rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The latest investigation began at the weekend when a court issued arrest orders for 47 municipal officials in connection with four separate corruption investigations centered on Istanbul, local media reported.

The March 19 arrest and jailing of Imamoglu sparked the biggest street protests Türkiye had seen in more than a decade.

Police had already detained nearly 70 people in subsequent raids linked to alleged corruption at Istanbul City Hall, including Imamoglu's private secretary and his private protection officer.

The CHP has nominated Imamoglu as its candidate in presidential elections due in 2028 but whether he can run in the elections depends on the fate of numerous trials and probes.