Don't know for how long vaccine is going to be effective: ICMR DG

India / Don't know for how long vaccine is going to be effective: ICMR DG
India - Don't know for how long vaccine is going to be effective: ICMR DG
New Delhi: Hours after two vaccines were approved under restricted use and emergency use authorisation by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), on Sunday said masks may never go out of regular usage.

"I think it's a great day for India, it's a great day for humanity at large. Two vaccines have been approved under restricted use and emergency use authorisation and it has been done following discussions by SEC. This is wonderful news for India and all of us," Bhargava told ANI.

However, he said that it is unknown how long vaccine is going to be effective. "We don't know how much of the population we'll have to vaccinate to break the virus transmission. What we know is that we've been able to control the pandemic in the country by following COVID-19 appropriate behaviour... I am of the opinion that masks will probably be the last to go and probably may never even go."

Talking about the new variant of Crornavirus creating 'havoc' in the UK, the ICMR chief informed that scientists of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) have successfully isolated the new virus strain and it will be tested against different vaccines soon.

"New virus variant which is now more than 60 per cent infective and creating havoc in the UK, is worrisome. There are 29 patients in India with the same variant for which we should be cautious. We were able to isolate the new virus very early," he stated.

"NIV scientists have successfully isolated the new virus strain and this will be tested against different vaccines," he said and added that he hopes "potentially Bharat Biotech vaccine will have some advantages over other vaccines on this new strain because it is a whole virus."

ICMR on Saturday said India has successfully isolated and cultured the UK-variant of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease. It is to mention that no other country has yet reported successful isolation and culture of the UK-variant of SARS-CoV-2 and added that vero cell lines of the virus were used by the scientists of ICMR-NIV to culture the UK-variant of the virus.

COVID-19 vaccines of Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech have been granted permission for restricted use in an emergency situation, said Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Sunday.

Notably, COVAXIN is an indigenously developed coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the ICMR.

Disclaimer

अपनी वेबसाइट पर हम डाटा संग्रह टूल्स, जैसे की कुकीज के माध्यम से आपकी जानकारी एकत्र करते हैं ताकि आपको बेहतर अनुभव प्रदान कर सकें, वेबसाइट के ट्रैफिक का विश्लेषण कर सकें, कॉन्टेंट व्यक्तिगत तरीके से पेश कर सकें और हमारे पार्टनर्स, जैसे की Google, और सोशल मीडिया साइट्स, जैसे की Facebook, के साथ लक्षित विज्ञापन पेश करने के लिए उपयोग कर सकें। साथ ही, अगर आप साइन-अप करते हैं, तो हम आपका ईमेल पता, फोन नंबर और अन्य विवरण पूरी तरह सुरक्षित तरीके से स्टोर करते हैं। आप कुकीज नीति पृष्ठ से अपनी कुकीज हटा सकते है और रजिस्टर्ड यूजर अपने प्रोफाइल पेज से अपना व्यक्तिगत डाटा हटा या एक्सपोर्ट कर सकते हैं। हमारी Cookies Policy, Privacy Policy और Terms & Conditions के बारे में पढ़ें और अपनी सहमति देने के लिए Agree पर क्लिक करें।