According to the current data available with us, virologist Dr Shahid Jameel said, among all the vaccines against COVID-19 approved in the country, Covovax would be a better booster for those who were administered Covishield vaccine shots than another dose of the same vaccine.
Jameel, the former head of the advisory group to the Indian SARS-COV-2 Genomics Consortia (INSACOG), said there is no data for the other sequences of vaccines so far.
“Data available at this time suggests that of the vaccines approved in India, Covovax would be a better booster in Covishield-vaccinated people than another dose of Covishield,” he told PTI. However, officials said that the “precaution dose” will be a third dose of the same vaccine that a person has been administered.
Covovax has been developed by US based vaccine manufacturer Novavax Inc. that had announced a licence agreement with the Serum Institute of India (SII) for the development and commercialisation of NVX-CoV2373, its coronavirus vaccine candidate, in low and middle-income countries and in India.
The central medicine authority, CDSCO, approved Covovax on Monday. India is gearing up to attack a possible third surge of the coronavirus epidemic as the Omicron variant of the contagion, which is said to be much further contagious than the other strains of COVID-19, has surfaced.
The country has recorded 781 Omicron cases across 21 countries and Union homes so far. Of the cases, 241 have either recovered or migrated, according to the Union health ministry.
In an interview to news gate”The Wire”, noted virologist Gagandeep Kang said there’s presently no data in India regarding which vaccine should be used for the third cure. Still, she cited a UK study that gauged the vulnerable response generated in individualities who have formerly entered two boluses of the AstraZeneca (Covishield) vaccine by either a supporter cure of the same vaccine or one of the Novavax ( known in India as Covovax) vaccine.
The study plant that a third cure of Covishield increased the Geometric Mean Rate (GMR) by3.25, while a supporter cure of Covovax increased the same by eight times and one of an mRNA vaccine did so by 24 times, she said.
