Covaxin found to neutralise Indian 617 variant of coronavirus: Expert
Covaxin, India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, can neutralise the Indian 617 variant of the deadly coronavirus, said White House chief medical adviser and America's top pandemic expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
He said that this was something where we're still gaining data on a daily basis but the recent data was looking at convalescent Sera of coronavirus cases and people who received the Covid-19 vaccine used in India, the Covaxin.
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Covaxin was found to neutralise the Indian 617 variant of coronavirus, he said.
Fauci further said despite the real difficulty in India, COVID-19 vaccination could be a very, very important antidote against this.
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On Tuesday, The New York Times said that Covaxin works by teaching the immune system to make antibodies against coronavirus.
The Bharat Biotech in partnership with the National Institute of Virology and the Indian Council of Medical Research developed Covaxin. It was approved for emergency use on January 3. The results of the trial later showed the vaccine has an efficacy of 78 percent.
Meanwhile, Dr Andy Slavitt, White House COVID-19 Response Senior Advisor, stated that a strike team from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention is headed over to India to help coordinate the response.
Slavitt said that they were making sure to locate some of the raw materials necessary to create more COVID-19 vaccines in India.
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