Covaxin, the indigenous COVID-19 vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech, has been found to neutralise the 617 variant of the deadly virus, America’s top pandemic expert Dr Anthony Fauci told reporters during a conference call on Tuesday.
“This is something where we’re still gaining data on a daily basis. But the most recent data, was looking at convalescent Sera of COVID-19 cases and people who received the vaccine used in India, the Covaxin. It was found to neutralise the 617 variants,” he said. 617 refers to the deadly double mutant variant discovered in India.
“So, despite the real difficulty that we’re seeing in India, vaccination could be a very, very important antidote against this,” Fauci added.
Covaxin was developed by Bharat Biotech in partnership with National Institute of Virology and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and was approved for emergency use on January 3 while still in clinical trial.
Earlier, studies from India had claimed that Covaxin was capable of neutralising deadlier variants of the disease spreading through India. Among them, specifically the B.1.617 strain, more commonly known as ‘double mutant’. This variant is said to be pushing the deadly second surge in Covid across the country.
Apex body ICMR had stated that Covaxin neutralises multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2 and effectively works against the double mutant strain as well.
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Responding to a question, Dr Andy Slavitt, White House COVID-19 Response Senior Advisor, said that a strike team from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention is headed over to India to help coordinate this response.
“We are making sure that we are locating some of the raw materials necessary to create more vaccines in India, which I think is going to be an important help there,” he said.
India is witnessing the worst healthcare crisis in recent memory. The country recorded 360,960 new cases in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning according to health ministry data, another new daily global record
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