Covaxin May be More Effective against Omicron Covid Variant than Other Vaccines: ICMR
New Delhi: Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) officer on a new variant of covid-19 ‘Omicron’ said that “Bharat Biotech’s Covid vaccine ‘Covaxin’ may be more effective against the highly-mutating Omicron variant which emerged this past week,”
A 66-year-old man who has become one of India’s first two cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant arrived in the country on November 20 and left for Dubai on a flight seven days later, official records showed on Thursday.
According to the medical expert Covaxin, a virion-inactivated vaccine “covers the entire virus and can work against this highly mutated new variant.
Another official of ICMR said that “Covaxin was also found to be effective against other variants such as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta, “so we can expect that it will be effective against the new variant as well,”
However, the official warned against complacency until more samples were received and tested.
AIIMS chief Dr. Randeep Guleria had earlier stated that “Omicron has over 30 mutations in the spike protein region, giving it the potential to develop an immune escape mechanism, and that the efficacy of vaccines must be carefully evaluated, because most vaccines (work by) forming antibodies against the spike protein, many mutations at the spike protein region may lead to a decrease in COVID-19 vaccine efficacy.”
(Vinayak)
