Russia's Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) head Kirill Dmitriev (pictured) said on Wednesday that next year could represent a gradual exit from the COVID-19 pandemic, depending on vaccination efforts.
"We really hope that vaccination efforts will lead to an improvement in the situation next year," Dmitriev stated. "Indeed, there are scenarios in which a "smooth exit" from the pandemic could start next year," he added.
Still, Dmitriev warned that, due to the emergence of new variants such as the Omicron, it is "difficult to make predictions" on how the pandemic will continue to unfold. "We see that no one could predict such a surge in infections in the countries whose population is vaccinated with mRNA vaccines," he stressed, likely referring to record spikes in several major European countries.
