Current Vaccines Will Protect Against New Coronavirus Strains: Govt

COVID-19 vaccines will work against novel variants of the virus, and there is no data that current vaccines will fail to protect against the SARS-CoV-2 mutants found in South Africa or UK.

Bharat Biotech's experimental COVID-19 vaccine candidate Covaxin can offer protection against new strain of COVID-19 found in the United Kingdom and South Africa.

Principal scientific advisor to the government, Prof Krishnaswamy Vijay Raghavan, told a press conference that there is no need to worry about vaccines' efficacy in regard to the reported variants of novel coronavirus at this stage.

Coronavirus
Coronaviruses infect animals, humans, and birds. Human coronaviruses, such as SARS, MERS, and 2019-nCoV cause respiratory distress and even death. The S protein is the infectious agent of the virus.

‘The Centre has assured that the COVID vaccines in the pipeline in India and across the globe will protect people against the SARS-CoV-2 mutations found in the UK and South Africa.’

"There are changes reported in the variants of the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2, and the vaccines target these proteins to build a shield against the effect of the virus. People are concerned whether the current vaccines would work against these variants or not? But the changes in the variants are not sufficient to make the vaccine ineffective since it stimulates our immune system to produce a wide range of protective antibodies," Raghavan said.

"There is no evidence to suggest that the current vaccines will fail to protect against Covid-19 variants reported from the UK and South Africa," he stated.

Early in the day, the Union Health Ministry had informed that a total of six UK returnees had been found positive with the UK variant in the genome sequencing study at different laboratories. Three of these were detected in NIMHANS, Bengaluru, two in CCMB, Hyderabad, and one in NIV, Pune.

Nearly 21 Percent US Adults Not Planning to Get Covid Vaccine: Survey
As the US prepares its nationwide vaccination program, a new survey has revealed that at least 21.3 percent of adults in the country are not planning to get the coronavirus vaccine shot.

The ministry also said that all these persons had been kept in single room isolation in designated health care facilities by respective state governments. Meanwhile, their close contacts have also been put under quarantine.

"Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travelers, family contacts, and others. Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on," the ministry said.

COVID Vaccine: Moderna Coronavirus Vaccine All Set For FDA Emergency Approval
A high powered vaccine advisory panel has endorsed Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use approval (EUA) by the FDA.

Source-IANS

COVID Vaccines Of China Could be Ready by November
The general population in China may start getting access to the locally prepared COVID-19 vaccines from November or December.