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The World Health Organization has no information at its disposal yet on how the novel coronavirus strain influences mortality rates, WHO representative to Russia, Melita Vujnovic, said on the round-the-clock television news channel Rossiya-24, according to TASS.

"The first data that we have received from British scientists indicates that this virus may be more contagious. At this point there is no proof, no sufficient evidence to say that it influences pathogenicity, the seriousness of the disease and mortality," Vujnovic said, adding that the WHO kept in touch with British scientists.

On December 14, Britain’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, said British scientists had identified a new coronavirus strain that might be to blame for high infection rates in southeastern England. Hancock said preliminary analysis indicated that the newly-discovered virus strain was spreading faster than any of those exposed previously. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told an urgent news conference on Saturday that according to the current findings the new strain might be 70% more contagious. He added that British experts had not yet found any proof that the mutated virus was fraught with a greater risk of lethal outcome.