Introduction: Combating the epidemic of the novel coronavirus disease required decision-making at the state level and joining efforts of medical workers of all specialties. The experience of the Kaliningrad Region deserves special attention since this region is located in Central Europe and the first COVID-19 cases were imported here in March 2020. Objective: To assess COVID-19 epidemic manifestations and effectiveness of preventive measures at the regional level. Materials and methods: We performed a retrospective epidemiological analysis of COVID-19 incidence in the Kaliningrad Region from March 2020 to December 2022. All registered cases were confirmed by PCR or immunochromatography assay. The study included 193,259 cases, 1,879 fatal cases, 1,168 samples with the established SARS-CoV-2 genetic variant, and information on 693,627 people vaccinated against COVID-19. The data were analyzed in Microsoft Excel and WinPepi (version 11.65). Results: In 2020, the COVID-19 incidence rate in the Kaliningrad Region was lower than that in the Russian Federation while in the years 2021 and 2022 the regional rates were, on the opposite, higher than the respective national ones (p < 0.05). All age groups of the population were involved in the outbreak. Periodic rises in the incidence were associated with the replacement of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 with Omicron. We established high efficacy of vaccination against COVID-19: incidence and mortality rates among the unvaccinated were significantly higher than those among vaccinated individuals (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Organization of uniform infection control measures has enabled timely interdepartmental managerial decision-making to control the epidemic. Russian regions have accumulated unique experience in implementing a set of preventive and anti-epidemic measures to combat the epidemic of the novel infection.
Objective: to study the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (AB) in children in the 2nd year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia. Materials and methods: prospective cohort study. The seroprevalence research was conducted among 3670 children aged 1 to 17 y/o from 26 modelling regions of Russia (that have been participating earlier in the five stages of seromonitoring during 2020-2021). The serological testing was carried out in December, 2021. The work was carried out according to a unified methodology set by the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-Being with the Pasteur Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology (Saint Petersburg, Russia). The plasma was obtained from 3 ml of venous blood, in which the level of AB to nucleocapsid (NC), and the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) was determined by immunoferment method using reagents for qualitative and quantitative analysis. Results: the analysis of AB seroprevalence to NC and RBD showed the statistically significant increase in the share of seropositivity to RBD in children of all modelling regions (p<0.05). The most seropositive volunteers contained low levels of AB: 31.3-125.6 BAU/ml NC and 22.6-220 BAU/ml RBD. An increase in the level of AB to NC and RBD was accompanied by a decrease in the percentage of seropositive patients. Evaluating the contribution of children to the level of humoral immunity, convalescents (had been ill shortly before the examination), the “anamnesis” (had been ill at previous stages of seromonitoring) and asymptomatic (had been asymptomatically ill) groups were distinguished. The maximum contribution was made by children with asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 in anamnesis: in 82.3% (95% CI 81.1-83.6), of which 76.9% (95% CI 75.5-78.3) AB detected to RBD. The contribution of children of two other groups to the overall level of humoral immunity was 33 times less. Conclusion: statistically significant predominance of AB to RBD above AB to NC and their main contribution to the level of humoral immunity to SARS-CоV-2 (p<0.001).
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