According to the expert, with the arrival of the winter season in the regions of Europe and Central Asia, along with COVID-19, there are other pathogens of the respiratory tract.

"It is a pity that this infection still causes severe cases of illness and death of patients," the message says.

At the moment, the trend of increasing morbidity is observed in almost half of the countries providing information on hospitalizations to WHO. These include Finland, Slovakia and Italy.

Based on the current epidemiological situation, the expert noted that wearing a medical mask in crowded places is a necessary preventive measure. This should be monitored, first of all, by those who are at risk - the elderly, patients with diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases, people with weak immune systems and pregnant women.

All strains recorded on Earth are "omicron" mutations. In particular, the EG variant.5, dubbed Eris, accounts for more than half of the SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating around the planet. In addition, HV mutations have become the dominant variants in some countries.1, "Kraken", JN.1 and VA.2.86.