A Recent Study Found Covaxin Effective Against Delta Plus Variant
Covaxin, which is essentially a whole-virion inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, was found to be effective against the earlier Delta variant. Even during the second wave, which was mainly caused by the Delta variant, this vaccine proved to be 65.2% effective in protecting vaccinated people from the virus. Studies had been conducted in a double-blind, randomized and multicentre phase 3 clinical trial which had shown that the mass inoculation drives using Covaxin had been highly effective in controlling the spread of the earlier Delta variant.
How effective is Covaxin against the Delta variant?
Since Covaxin had earlier proven effective against the Delta variant, it is highly possible that it has a similar potency against the Delta Plus variant. The recent study in question was conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research and has been recently published in the online research repository known as bioRxiv. The study stated that the natively developed Covaxin of India has been deemed effective against the Delta Plus variant. It concluded that Covaxin has shown 77.8% efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 which is a phenomenal breakthrough discovery since this gets one step further in flattening the curve.
Covaxin vs Covishield – which one is more effective?
While the efficacy of Covaxin against the original variant of COVID-19 was reported to be 81%, that of the Covishield was reported to be 90%. As a result, many preferred the latter over the former homegrown vaccine. However, with the emergence of new variants like the Delta and the Delta Plus, it is seen that the effectiveness of both Covaxin and Covishield have been reduced.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested that AstraZeneca’s Covishield, which has similar properties to that of Covaxin, is 67% effective against the new Delta and Delta Plus variants. In comparison, India’s very own Covaxin is about 65.2% effective, meaning there is not much difference between the efficacy of both.
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