Testing vaccine efficacy against Covid-19 Delta+ variant: Centre

Both Covishield and Covaxin work against the Sars-Cov-2 variants Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta, and the Indian Council of Medical Research is now examining their effectiveness against the emerging Delta Plus variant, said director general Balram Bhargava on Friday.

“Very recently we have cultured the delta plus variant, and now we are testing in the laboratory whether the vaccine are effective against the delta plus variant. We have enough data against alpha, beta and delta... and we are doing the same laboratory tests on this variant that we did on others; it is called looking the laboratory tests to check the vaccine effect. This is ongoing and we should have results in about seven to 10 days time,” said Dr Bhargava.

The Union health ministry classified the Delta Plus as a variant of concern on Tuesday.

Bhargava said the variant is present in 12 countries, and India has reported 51 “very localised” cases from 11 states and Union territories. “The Delta Plus variant has also been isolated and cultured at ICMR-NIV, and laboratory tests to check vaccine effect on Delta Plus variant are ongoing. We should have these results in seven-10 days as to whether the vaccine is working against the Delta Plus variant.”

The Delta variant has about 15-17 mutations and was first reported in October last year, and it was responsible for more than 60% of cases in Maharashtra in February.

Also read | Maharashtra tightens curbs amid Delta Plus Covid cases

According to Dr SK Singh, director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), out of the nearly 65,000 samples sent for genome sequencing from across the country, 21,156 were found to be variants of concern.

“Eight states are important where we have found the delta variant of concern in more than 50% of the samples of Covid-19 positive people. These states are Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Telangana, and West Bengal. And it has been clearly established that the exponential surge in Covid-19 cases that we saw in the second covid-19 wave is largely due to the presence of this variant of concern,” added Singh.

He, however, also said that the variant’s clinical co-relation is still being investigated, and at this stage it cannot be termed as more virulent.

The Union ministry of health and family welfare on Friday wrote to the above mentioned eight states asking them to have more focused and stringent public health response.

“The Public health response, in this case while broadly remaining the same, has to become more focused and stringent. Thus, you are requested to take up immediate containment measures in these districts and clusters including preventing crowds, and intermingling of people, widespread testing, prompt tracing, as well as vaccine coverage on a priority basis,” read the letter by Union health secretary, Rajesh Bhushan.

“You are also requested to ensure that adequate samples of positive persons are sent to the designated laboratories of INSACOG promptly so that the clinical epidemiological correlations can be established,” the letter further read.

Experts, however, say it is important to take the vaccine irrespective of the variant.

“There are studies to show vaccines work in overall reduction in chances of the disease progressing to severe levels. Therefore, people should come forward to get vaccinated. All vaccines are safe,” said Dr GC Khilnani, former head, pulmonology department, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi