The SARS-CoV-2 virus will continue mutating further on but it is difficult to predict the pace of this process, virologist and associate member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Lukashev told TASS.

Axar.az reports that the coronavirus will not disappear in the near future and will continue mutating and circulating in the society, expert of the World Health Organization Maria Van Kerkhove said on October 5.

"I fully agree with this forecast. Regrettably, we cannot predict the pace of its mutations. Appearance of the Omicron variant a year ago was completely unexpected for us. We do not know also whether this could occur once or can occur one hundred times more. Therefore, yes, [the virus] will mutate differently but it is difficult to predict the pace so far - in other words, whether there are minor changes or there are dramatic changes, like in the situation with the Omicron," the expert said.