Early Covaxin Study Shows Protections Against Beta & Delta Variants Of Covid-19

ICMR chief Balram Bharagava is one of the authors of the study along with one from vaccine maker Bharat Biotech.

Image Source: PTI

New Delhi: A new joint study conducted by the researchers from Pune's National Institute of Virology, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and Bharat Biotech has found that indigenous vaccine Covaxin gives protection against Delta & Beta variants of the coronavirus. 

The study which is yet to be peer-reviewed is based on samples collected from 20 recovered COVID-19 patients and 17 people, who received the second dose of Covaxin 28 days before the study.

Covaxin demonstrated a protective response against the two variants of concern, the study claims. “The finding of the study demonstrated a reduction in neutralization titers with sera of COVID-19 recovered cases (3.3-fold and 4.6-fold) and BBV152 vaccinees (3.0 and 2.7 fold) against B.1.351 and B.1.617.2 respectively,” the study said.

The Delta variant (B.1.617.2) was first found in India and is the dominant strain in the country, the Beta variant  (B.1.351) was first discovered in South Africa.

However, the researchers concluded that despite a reduction in neutralization titer, the whole-virion inactivated vaccine demonstrated a protective response against the two variants of concern.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has renamed B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2 variants of the Covid-19, first identified in India as 'Kappa & Delta'. The WHO has also named various variants of the coronavirus using Greek alphabets (alpha, beta, gamma, delta, etc) to simplify public discussions and also help remove the stigma from the names. The UN health agency named the B.1.617.1 variant of the COVID 19 as 'Kappa' while the B1.617.2 variant was dubbed 'Delta.' Both the variants were first found in India.

Covaxin was developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV).