COVID-19: Current vaccines effective against Delta variant as per ICMR studies, says Dr NK Arora

The current vaccines available in India are effective against the COVID-19 Delta variant as per the studies done by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), says Dr N K Arora, co-chair, Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG).

Responding to a question on effectiveness of vaccine against the Delta variant, Dr Arora said, "Yes, the current vaccines are effective against Delta Variant as per the studies undertaken by ICMR on the issue."

The INSACOG co-chair also touched upon the rising number of cases where he emphasised that country is witnessing spurge in COVID cases in north-eastern part and southern states, which could be attributed to Delta variant.

"Though there is a significant dip in the number of cases in most parts of the country, some regions are witnessing a high-Test Positivity Rate (TPR) particularly in the north-eastern parts of the country and several districts in the southern states, most of these cases could be due to the Delta variant," he said.

Talking about the future wave, Dr Arora said the second wave is still going on and any future waves will be controlled and delayed if more and more people get vaccinated and most importantly, people follow COVID-appropriate behaviour effectively.

"A virus begins infecting a part of the population, which is most susceptible and also exposed to the infection. It diminishes after it successfully infects a large proportion of the population and strikes back when the immunity developed in the people post-natural infection fades. The cases may go up if a new, more infectious variant comes. In other words, the next wave will be driven by a virus variant to which a significant proportion of the population is susceptible," Dr Arora said.

He advised that people need to focus on vaccination and adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour to manage the pandemic.

India right now administers the Serum Institute of India's Covishield, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Russian Sputnik V vaccine.

(ANI)

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