Amid mounting concerns over the fast-spreading variant of COVID-19 reported from the UK and South Africa, the government on Tuesday said there has been no evidence so far that the current vaccines will fail to protect against the new variants.
"There is no evidence that current vaccines will fail to protect against COVID 19 variants reported from UK or SA. Most vaccines do target the Spike protein, in which there are changes in the variants but vaccines stimulate our immune system to produce a wide range of protective antibodies," said Principal Scientific Advisor K. Vijay Raghavan.
Speaking to media, Raghavan said so far it has not been found that the new variant increases the severity of the disease.
Meanwhile, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that before the news of the UK variant came in, India had done roughly 5,000 such genome sequences in various labs in the country.
"Now we'll be significantly increasing that number and would be working in a coordinated manner," Bhushan said.
ICMR DG Dr Balram Bhargava, however, said it is important that we do not put too much immune pressure on virus. "We've to maintain judicious use of therapies which are going to benefit. If the benefit is not established we shouldn't use those therapies, otherwise it will put pressure on virus and it will tend to mutate more," he said.
Bhushan said India's active COVID-19 caseload has slipped to 2.7 lakhs after 6 months while cumulative positivity rate is at 6.02 per cent. He added that 63 per cent of the total COVID-19 cases so far have been reported in males while 37 per cent cases in females.
"Age-wise, 8 per cent cases reported below age of 17 years; 13 per cent in 18-25 years age group; 39 per cent in 26-44 years group; 26 per cent in 45-60 yeras group and 14 per cent above 60 years," the health secretary said.
He further said 45 per cent COVID-19 deaths in the country have been reported in those below 60 years of age.
According to the ministry, five states that account for 60 per cent of the total active COVID cases are Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
“Consistent decline in number of new COVID cases, active cases and deaths is reassuring at a time when several nations are facing crisis,” Bhushan said.
