Covaxin will control 3rd COVID-19 wave, ICMR study reveals major facts

New Delhi: Covaxin is effective in providing immunity against the Delta Plus variant of COVID-19, a new study by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has found.

Several cases related to Delta Plus variant have been reported in the country so far. However, it is unclear whether the variant impacts vaccine efficacy.

Last month, Dr VK Paul of NITI Aayog asserted that there is no scientific data so far to establish that the new variant is highly transmissible or reduces vaccine efficacy.

"The so-called Delta plus variant exhibits an additional mutation in the Delta variant and since this is a new variant, scientific knowledge is still in the early stage,” Dr Paul said.

"Whether this additional mutation in the Delta variant is associated with increased transmissibility or excess severity of disease, or any adverse effect on vaccine efficacy is currently not established and we should wait for this information to emerge,” he added.

"And we should wait for these aspects to be studied systematically," he pointed out.

The new ICMR study would certainly consolidate the confidence in the COVID-19 vaccines, particularly Covaxin.

Covaxin is developed indigenously by Bharat Biotech which has shown an overall vaccine efficacy of 77.8% based on the results from the Phase 3 trials.

The Hyderabad-based company said that the Covaxin has been proven 'safe' in India's largest efficacy trial and shared the final Phase 3 Pre-Print data published on medRxiv.

The Phase 3 trials also showed that Covaxin’s efficacy against asymptomatic COVID-19 was 63.6%, while it was 65.2% against the Delta variant (B.1.617.2).