Dr N K Arora, chief of Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium, said the current vaccines are effective against the Delta variant according to studies undertaken by ICMR.
The study, which is the first nationwide study of post-vaccination infections, found that only 9.8% cases required hospitalisation and fatality was observed in only 0.4% cases.
Increased transmissibility of Delta variant means that it is likely to emerge as the dominant variant globally in coming months, as per WHO's Covid weekly epidemiological update.
An article in the Indian Journal of Medical Research notes that vaccination and tracking are the two important strategies needed to combat the Delta variant.
Pfizer says it has received initial data showing that a third dose of its existing vaccine is safe & can raise neutralising antibody levels by 5 to 10 fold compared with original vaccine.
The research yet to be peer reviewed, brought together data from modelling studies, sero-surveys, as well as structural insights into the spike protein of the mutated virus.
Virology and epidemiology can give people an estimate of how risky something is, but can’t tell people how much risk is too much, or which mitigation measures impose too much burden.
The study was conducted on more than 100 healthcare workers at three centres in India, and found that the variant generates greater transmission among the fully vaccinated workers.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Delta variant is dangerous and requires constant evaluation and careful adjustment of the public health response.
While global corporations setting up GCCs in India continue to express confidence in availability of skilled AI engineers, the panel argued that India’s real challenge lies elsewhere.
Taylor ‘Fema’ Hiester, commander of USAF F-16 Viper Demo Team, hit out at air show organisers for continuing with the show after Wing Commander Namansh Syal lost his life in the incident.
It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.
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