There is reason to hope that more dangerous types of Covid-19 will not form in the near future - epidemiologist

RIGA - There is reason to hope that in the near future the Latvian public will not be threatened by the formation of new, more dangerous types of Covid-19, said Professor Girts Brigis, head of the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology of Riga Stradins University, in an interview with Latvian Television this morning.

When asked how big the risk is that the omicron variant of Covid-19 dominant in Latvian society could mutate into something more dangerous, the epidemiologist answered that it cannot be ruled out, but in general this risk is not high.

Brigis explained that the high contagiousness of the omicron variant observed in society shows that it is currently the dominant variant, therefore "there is a reason to hope that we may not be threatened with new, bigger troubles in the near future". At the same time, he noted that the virus can change its characteristics at any moment, so it is impossible to give any guarantees.

The professor is not in a hurry to draw any conclusions from the currently observed fluctuations in the Covid-19 infection levels Latvia, because the overall incidence is too small, so even such numerically small changes are not of significant importance.

"With small numbers, small fluctuations do not really mean anything that it would be very dangerous or threatening. (..) During the last week, the number of new [Covid-19] cases in Europe has increased slightly - by about 5 percent, but it is very little, and with low overall morbidity, such small increases do not really indicate trends," explained Brigis.