DELTA PLUS COVID VARIANT DETECTED IN INDIA: CENTRE
NEW DELHI : The Union government on Tuesday said that the Delta variant of the coronavirus that was first detected in India played major role in the second wave of the pandemic in the country, and an additional mutation of this variant, Delta Plus, has been detected and submitted to global data system.
Niti Aayog member Dr VK Paul at a press briefing said, “It [Delta Plus variant] has been seen in Europe since March & was brought into public domain on June 13. Delta Plus is a variant of interest. It has not yet been classified as a variant of concern. As per data available in public domain, this variant nullifies the use of monoclonal antibody. We will study and learn more about this variant.”
Separately, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday that the genome sequencing by the Indian Sars-CoV-2 Genetics Consortium helped in detection of ‘variants of concern’ in real-time and it was also shared with states, highlighting that the turnaround time was 10 to 15 days.
The ministry said that the effect of known ‘variants of concern’ (VoCs) on disease transmission and severity is already established.
But for new mutations or variants under investigation, and for correlation of genomic mutations with epidemiological scenarios and clinical perspective, it is important to monitor epidemiological trends of cases, clinical severity and proportions of samples with genomic variants, it said. These have to be done over a few weeks to generate scientifically valid evidence, the ministry said.
THE TEAM ANALYSED 19,543 CONFIRMED SARSCOV-2 INFECTIONS OVER THE PERIOD OF INTEREST, OF WHOM 377 WERE ADMITTED TO HOSPITAL FOR COVID-19 IN SCOTLAND
LONDON: The Delta variant of Coronavirus, first identified in India, doubles the risk of hospitalisation compared with the Alpha variant first found in the UK, but Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines to the virus provide good protection against the new strain, says a study published in The Lancet journal recently.
Researchers at Public Health Scotland and the University of Edinburgh, UK, found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine offered better protection against the Delta variant compared to the Oxford-AstraZeneca preventive, known as Covishield in India.
The analysis covered the period from April 1 to June 6, 2021, for the demographic distribution of cases.
The team analysed 19,543 confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections over the period of interest, of whom 377 were admitted to hospital for Covid-19 in Scotland.
Around 7,723 community cases and 134 hospitalisations were found to have the Delta variant of coronavirus.
The recent study found that the Pfizer vaccine offered 92 per cent protection against the Alpha variant of Covid-19 and 79 per cent against the Delta strain two weeks after the second dose.
For AstraZeneca’s vaccine, there was 60 per cent protection against Delta compared with 73 per cent for Alpha variant, the researchers said.
They also found that two doses of vaccine provide much better protection against the Delta variant compared to a single dose.
“Risk of Covid-19 hospital admission was approximately doubled in those with the Delta variant of concern (VOC) when compared to the Alpha VOC, with risk of admission particularly increased in those with five or more relevant comorbidities,” the authors of the study noted.
“Both the Oxford–AstraZeneca and Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines were effective in reducing the risk of SARSCoV-2 infection and Covid-19 hospitalisation in people with the delta VOC,” they said.
However, the researchers noted that these effects on infection with Delta variant appeared to be diminished when compared to those with the Alpha VOC.
The authors of the study warned that the vaccine comparison should be interpreted with caution due to differences in the groups which received each type of Covid-19 vaccine, and also in how quickly immunity is developed with each shot.