Covaxin Provides Protection Against Coronavirus For Minimum Six Months: NII

New Delhi: People vaccinated with Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin are protected against coronavirus for six month. Covaxin has immunological memory to COVID and its variants of concern for at least six months, said director in-charge of National Institute of Immunology (NII) Pushkar Sharma.

What does this mean? The indigenously developed vaccine can provide protection from the virus for a minimum of six months.

Immunological memory is the ability of the immune system to respond more rapidly and effectively to pathogens that have been encountered previously.

Speaking at the annual general body meeting of the society of NII, Sharma said  “The inactivated virus vaccine BBV152/Covaxin elicits robust cellular immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern- Delta, Alpha, Beta and Gamma, which persist at least up to 6 months.”

At a meeting on Sunday, which was presided over by Union Minister for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh, Sharma presented the institution’s work in understanding fundamental processes that regulate inflammation, pathogenesis, ageing and immune response.

The focus is on various areas of research, including infection and immunity, molecular design, gene regulation and reproduction and development.

NII has also provided services for COVID-19 research. Under this programme, 65 Medical laboratory technologists (MLTs)/lab technicians were trained in various aspects of COVID-19. There have been more than 30,000 samples screened so far and the positive samples have been sent for genome sequencing.

Sharma further elaborated that NII has also developed a collagen based herbal formulation for osteoarthritis (OA). The formulation (SG002) contains a bioactive collagen peptide and alcoholic extract of two exotic Himalayan plants. He added that the institute is also part of the Indo-European Consortium for Next Generation Influenza Vaccination, stated reports.