Covaxin Will Help India Fight Third Wave: ICMR Study

New Delhi: Going by a new study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Covaxin might see India through the third COVID wave since it is effective in providing immunity against the Delta Plus variant of COVID-19.

There have been several cases of the Delta Plus variant in the country but it is not clear whether it impacts vaccine efficacy. Last month, Dr VK Paul of NITI Aayog had said there is no scientific data so far to establish that the new variant is highly transmissible or reduces vaccine efficacy.

“The so-called Delta plus variant exhibits an additional mutation in the Delta variant and since this is a new variant, scientific knowledge is still in the early stage,” Dr Paul said.

“Whether this additional mutation in the Delta variant is associated with increased transmissibility or excess severity of disease, or any adverse effect on vaccine efficacy is currently not established and we should wait for this information to emerge,” he added.

According to Bharat Biotech that produces Covaxin, it has been proven ‘safe’ in India’s largest efficacy trial and shared the final Phase 3 Pre-Print data published on medRxiv.

The Phase 3 trials also showed that Covaxin’s efficacy against asymptomatic COVID-19 was 63.6%, while it was 65.2% against the Delta variant (B.1.617.2), ZeeNews reported.