19 Feb in 12:40 Mutated coronavirus strains that emerged abroad are not spreading in Russia, Russia’s chief sanitary doctor Anna Popova assured. "We have practically no spread of the British strain. We are monitoring this very closely," said Popova, who heads the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing. According to her, isolated cases have been recorded so far, which suggests that "there is no spread of other strains in Russia for now". "The shield works well in the country," she said in an interview with Nailya Asker-zade in Vesti program on Rossiya-1 television. The UK coronavirus variant was found in September 2020, but it drew attention of experts only in December because of its spreading rapidly across the country. News about new strains came from Brazil and South Africa at the end of December.