Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : December 29, 2020 9:01 PM IST
Changes in the new variants are not sufficient to make the current vaccines ineffective, says Prof Krishnaswamy Vijay Raghavan.
The new coronavirus strains that recently emerged in the UK and South Africa have put the world on high alert. There has been concerns among people if the currently approved vaccines or those under development would work against the latest variants, which are said to be more contagious than the previous mutations. Putting all the worries to rest, the Centre has assured that the vaccines in the pipeline in India and across the globe will protect people against the SARS-CoV-2 mutations found in the UK and South Africa.
During in a press conference on Tuesday, Prof Krishnaswamy Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific advisor to the government, said that there is no need to worry about the efficacy of vaccines in regard to the new variants at this stage.
Changes have been reported in the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 that vaccines target to build shield against the effect of the virus. But Raghavan said the changes in the variants are not sufficient to make the vaccine ineffective as it stimulates the immune system to produce a wide range of protective antibodies.
"There is no evidence to suggest that the current vaccines will fail to protect against Covid-19 variants reported from the UK and South Africa," IANS quoted him as saying.
So fat, six UK returnees have been found positive with the UK variant in the genome sequencing study at different laboratories, according to the Union Health Ministry.
Researchers have revealed that both the South African and the UK variants contain an unusually high number of mutations compared to other SARS-CoV-2 lineages. While both variants share a common change in the spike protein that may make them more infectious, sequence analysis revealed that they originated separately, according to the World Health Organization.
The new Covid-19 strain the emerged in South Africa, which is referred to as 501.V2, was discovered by a network of scientists while tracking the genetics of the SARS-COV-2 virus.
The scientists found that the new variant, which appears to be focused in the south and southeast regions of South Africa, has multiple mutations in the important "spike" protein that the virus uses to infect human cells.
The new Covid-19 strain is also associated with a higher viral load, which maybe contributing to higher levels of transmission.
Between 80% and 90% of new cases in South Africa are carrying the mutant variant, according to the country's health authorities. Though it appears to spread faster than previous iterations, South African scientists are not sure at this stage if the latest variant is associated with more severe disease or worse outcomes.
British scientists observed 17 changes or mutations in the latest coronavirus variant found in the UK, which is named VUI 202012/01. Specifically, the `N501Y` mutation in the spike protein is thought to be responsible for the virus becoming more infectious. The UK government had announced that the new variant is up to 70 per cent more infectious than the previous strains.
But vaccine developers including AstraZeneca, BioNTech and Moderna Inc sare hopeful that their shots will work against the UK variant as well.
