The new mutant of the coronavirus found in the United Kingdom, causing panic in the world, is more contagious but, despite the mutation, a vaccine against the coronavirus will be just as effective against it, said Director General Shekhar Mande of the Research Council Scientific and Industrial (CSIR). Monday.
DG CSIR also said that while the the transmissibility of the new coronavirus mutant is a “little higher”, “It doesn’t mean it’s more lethal and more people are going to die from it.” He said there is no need to panic over new strains of the coronavirus.
He said that while there could be differences in certain aspects such as antibodies in both cases, CEO Shekhar Mande stated that a coronavirus vaccine will be very effective against the new mutant of the coronavirus that has been found in the United Kingdom, which resulting in the world closing its borders to Britain.
‘THE VACCINE WILL BE EFFECTIVE, DO NOT PANIC’
“The coronavirus vaccines will be equally effective against the new mutant of the virus and there is no reason to panic,” said CSIR Director General Shekhar Mande.
“There are likely to be differences between certain things like antibodies, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the vaccines will be ineffective. The vaccines will be just as effective despite the mutation. So there is no reason to panic,” Mande said .
Indian institutions have sequenced more than 4,000 coronavirus genomes and submitted them to the Global Initiative for Sharing All Data on Influenza (GISAID).
The Institute for Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) of CSIR, Delhi and the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, have only performed the sequencing of more than 2,200 sequences of the coronavirus genome in India.
Said this particular mutation of the coronavirus strain, which has affected about 1,000 in the UK, has yet to be found in Indian isolates. The mutation has been observed independently in the United Kingdom, Brazil, and South Africa.
HOW TO DIAGNOSE A NEW CORONAVIRUS MUTANT?
Shekhar Mande said that the new coronavirus mutant can be diagnosed with RT-PCR. He said that while it is necessary to see if it can be equally effective for Rapid Antigen tests, there is nothing to suggest that it is not.
Shekhar Mande said there could be differences in the monoclonal antibodies (made in the laboratory) that recognize the particular region in a virus that is not otherwise mutated. “But in the mutated virus, that monoclonal antibody may not work effectively against this changed variant,” he said.
In an attempt to block the spread of the new coronavirus mutant, the Indian government has announced that all Flights from the UK will be suspended from Tuesday night until December 31.. All passengers arriving in India by Tuesday (December 22) will need to be tested.
Meanwhile, countries around the world closed their borders to Britain on Monday due to fears over a new highly infectious coronavirus strain, causing travel chaos and increasing the prospect of food shortages days before Britain leaves the European Union.
India, Pakistan, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Jordan, France, Hong Kong and other countries suspended British travel after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said a mutated variant of the virus had been identified in the country. .
(With input from PTI, Reuters)
