Here's What WHO Said On Efficacy Of Vaccine Against Indian Variant Of Covid-19

Effectiveness Of COVID-19 Vaccine: The B.1.617 variant of the COVID-19 vaccine, which is reported to be responsible for the deadly second wave of the pandemic in India, has been considered a global concern, granting to its revived deadliness.

The Union health ministry on Tuesday claimed that an early trend of decline in daily new Covid-19 cases and related deaths has been noted in India. However, the country continues to record over 3 lakh daily infections resulting in overwhelming pressure on healthcare infrastructure. Here are four things the WHO have said about the fourth variant of the virus and the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Is The COVID-19 Vaccine Effective In India?

"The vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics continue to be effective against the coronavirus variant B.1.617," said the World Health Organization (WHO) representative to India on May 11.

Does The New Variant Spread More Easily?

Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Covid-19 technical lead at WHO stated that available information suggests increased transmissibility of the new variant of the virus. However, she further informed that more studies and research work is needed about the B.1.617 variant and all of the sub-lineages

"Our Epi teams and our lab teams internally, there is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility of B1617, as such we are classifying this as a variant of concern at the global level," she said.

WHO Asks Govt To Inform Actual Number Of Victims

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan pressed the Indian Government to report the actual number of deaths and cases in regard to the second wave of the pandemic. She said that the rate of infections and fatalities "worrying."

"Every country in the world, in fact, the number of cases and deaths has been underestimated to its true number," she told ANI.

Dr H Ofrin On Effectiveness Of COVID-19 Vaccine

Special attention to the Indian variant has been drawn after the UN health agency classified it as a variant of global concern. According to ANI, Dr Roderico H Ofrin’s statement on vaccine efficacy against the Indian variant of concern was based on what the WHO knows so far as per the discussions with experts globally.

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