Till now, the prevalence of Delta AY.1 has been found to be low in India and 70 cases of coronavirus Delta Plus variant were found in genome sequencing by the INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics). However, there has been no information on the efficacy of currently available vaccines against the Delta AY.1 variant.
The domestically developed Covaxin is effective against the Delta plus variant of Covid-19, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has claimed in its study, released on Monday. Covaxin is developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and the National Institute of Pune. “Here, we have evaluated the IgG antibody titer and neutralising potential of sera of Covid-19 naive individuals full doses of BBV152 vaccine, Covid-19 recovered cases with full dose vaccines and breakthrough cases post-immunisation BBV152 vaccines against Delta, Delta AY.1 and B.1.617.3.” the study said.
The recent emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 Variant B.1.617.2 (Delta) with its high transmissibility has led to the second wave in India. Covaxin, a whole-virion inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine used for mass immunisation in the country, showed a 65.2 per cent protection against the Delta variant in a double-blind, randomised, multicentre, phase 3 clinical trial. Subsequently, Delta has further mutated to Delta AY.1, AY.2, and AY.3. Of these, AY.1 variant was first detected in India in April 2021 and subsequently from 20 other countries as well, the study said. The study is a pre-print and has not been peer reviewed. Covaxin demonstrated 77.8 per cent effectiveness against symptomatic Covid-19 and 65.2 per cent protection against the B.1.617.2 Delta variant, Bharat Biotech had said while concluding the final analysis of Covaxin efficacy from Phase 3 trials on July
“Sera of individuals who were fully immunized (with 2 doses) didn’t show significant reduction in the NAb titer against Delta, Delta AY.1 and B.1.617.3”, said Dr Samiran Panda, Head of epidemiology and infectious diseases. NAb titer of sera of recovered cases with vaccinations and breakthrough cases were significantly high compared to those with two doses of vaccinations. According to Dr Panda, immunization is key to protect from severity and deaths in the current situation and reduce the burden on healthcare system.
Meanwhile, after Kerala, Karnataka has witnessed a steep spike in coronavirus cases. Notably, Karnataka reported 2,052 fresh cases of Covid-19 and 35 deaths, taking the total number of infections to 29,01,247 and the toll to 36,491. The capital city logged 506 cases, 34 per cent more than Wednesday’s count of 376. Besides, Bengaluru Urban, other districts where a large number of new cases were reported are Dakshina Kannada 396, Udupi 174, Mysuru 157, Hassan 136. Bengaluru Urban district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 12,26,463, followed by Mysuru 1,72,637 and Tumakuru 1,17,667. The total number of active cases in the state is at 23,253. The state’s positivity rate was 1.37 per cent and case fatality rate 1.70 per cent across the state. The infection claimed 35 lives, including nine in Bengaluru, taking the state’s death toll to 36,491 and the city’s toll to 15,852 since the pandemic broke out in March over a year ago.
India, meanwhile, reported 40,134 new cases of Covid-19 and 422 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the Union Health Ministry. The total number of cases currently stands at 3,16,95,958. The death toll has climbed to 4,24,773. The number of active cases of Covid-19 in the country is 4,13,718. A total of 36,946 patients recovered in the last 24 hours and 3,08,57,467 people have recovered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. This constitutes an overall recovery rate of 97.35%. Less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported since thirty-six continuous days. This is a result of sustained and collaborative efforts by the Centre, the states and UTs. According to the Health ministry, India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 47.22 crore. Cumulatively, 47,22,23,639 vaccine doses have been administered through 55,99,690 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today. 17,06,598 vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours. The new phase of universalization of Covid-19 vaccination commenced on 21 June 2021.
—With agency inputs.