The Indian variant of COVID-19-causing coronavirus, which could be behind the great pandemic boom in South Asia, shows laboratory studies evidence of being more contagious and resistant to some vaccines and treatments, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned today.
The variant includes mutations “associated with increased transmission” and less ability to neutralize the virus with some monoclonal antibody treatments, WHO noted in its weekly epidemiological report.
In addition, some analyses in the United States show a possible reduction in the neutralizing effects of vaccines against this variant, and even preliminary studies with the Novavax-Covaxin vaccine show that it is unable to counteract it, WHO notes.
The Indian variant, first detected in patients in that country at the end of 2020, is being studied by more than 1,200 sequencings of its genome in 17 countries, including India itself, the United Kingdom, the US and Singapore.
Despite concern about the incidence of this virus in India (which already concentrates almost 40% of new global cases) WHO still considers it only a “variant of interest” and not a “variant of concern”, the highest level of alert (for now considered only for those in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil).
