Lancet Study: Covishield vaccine remained efficient during Delta surge

India -The prestigious journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases has published a study, according to which the Covishield vaccine remained effective against moderate to severe Covid-19 infection even during the surge of highly transmissible Delta variant of coronavirus. The study by Lancet was conducted to assess real world effectiveness of Covishield vaccine by Serum Institute of India during the catastrophic surge of April – May that exhausted India’s healthcare infrastructure to extreme. The study was led by a team of multi-institutional Indian researchers under guidance of Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI).

The Lancet study found Covishield to be 63 per cent efficacious in fully vaccinated individuals. The vaccine was 81 per cent efficient during the moderate to severe phase of infection caused by SARS Cov-2 virus.

During the study, researchers assessed cellular immune responses as well as neutralizing activity against Covid-19 variants in healthy vaccinated individuals. A comparison was drawn between 2,379 cases of confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 1,981 people that were controls.

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The study has been published by Lancet at a time when concerns around new Omicron variant are rising. The variant was first detected last week in South Africa. WHO has designated the B.1.1.529 variant as “a variant of concern”. Scientists have claimed that the Omicron variant is more virulent than the Delta variant. The extremely high number of mutations, 30 as detected till date, can make the virus evade immunity achieved through the vaccines.

Meanwhile, CEO of Serum Institute of India, Pune, Mr. Adar Poonawalla said that tests for Omicron are underway and Covishield’s efficacy against the new variant can be known in a couple of weeks. He added, that the focus of government must be now to go ahead with the booster dose of all eligible people.

Last week, The Lancet had published a study about real world efficacy of India’s indigenous vaccine Covaxin during the catastrophic Delta surge in April – May. The study found two doses of Covaxin remained 50 per cent effective against the asymptomatic cases during this period. Covaxin was also found to be 77.8 per cent effective against symptomatic cases.