ICMR’S STUDY SHOWS COVAXIN WORKS AGAINST COVID VARIANTS

NEW DELHI: The indigenously developed Covaxin vaccine is effective against variants of the Sars-cov-2 virus that causes Covid-19, including the Delta variant that was first sequenced in India, a study by the Indian Council of Medical Research has found.

The research, which is yet to be peer reviewed, also discovered that the vaccine is thrice as effective in creating antibodies as a previous Covid-19 infection. To be sure, other research has shown that a previous infection does confer stronger immunity.

The research found out that Covaxin, which was developed by Bharat Biotech in association with ICMR, creates 2.7 times less neutralising titre against the Delta variant and three times less neutralising titre against the Beta variant first reported from South Africa.

The neutralising titre refers to the level of antibodies created. But the vaccine remained effective against both strains.