Delta Variant 8 Times Less Sensitive To Vaccine Antibodies: Gangaram Hospital

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New Delhi: A study, conducted on 100 healthcare workers across three centres in Delhi, found that the Delta variant of coronavirus is eight times less sensitive to antibodies generated by COVID-19 vaccine compared to the original strain found in Wuhan.

This comes a day after Bharat Biotech announced that Covaxin has 65 per cent efficacy for the Delta variant.

The study titled ‘Sars-Cov-2 B.1.617.2 Deltavariant Emergence and Vaccine Breakthrough: Collaborative Study’ also revealed that this variant is highly capable of infecting more people than the Wuhan strain.

“In an analysis of vaccine breakthrough in over 100 healthcare workers across three centres in India, the B.1.617.2 Delta variant not only dominates vaccine-breakthrough infections with higher respiratory viral loads compared to non-delta infections, but also generates greater transmission between fully vaccinated healthcare workers, as compared to other variants B.1.1.7 (Alpha variant) or B.1.617.1 (Kappa variant),” the study stated.

It also said that the Delta variant has higher replication efficiency. Transmission-wise too, the Delta strain is more dangerous as it has enhanced spike proteins for attachment to the lung epithelial cells.

Sir Gangaram Hospital chairperson Dr Chand Wattal said that it appears “we have to go miles before we sleep in case of Covid-19 pandemic.” He added that mutations will happen if we let our guards down.

He warned vaccinated people not to take it lightly as the “virus is on prowl still looking for its prey”.