PM's scientific advisor believes India's Covid-19 vaccines will be effective at least for a year

K VijayRaghavan believes the immunity from the vaccines will be significantly long

The two Covid-19 vaccines that Indian drug regulators approved for emergency usage earlier this month will provide immunity against the virus for at least a year, if not longer, according to K VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor to PM Narendra Modi.

VijayRaghvan said, according to a report in Moneycontrol, the immunity period from the vaccines will be “significantly long” but it is not possible to give an exact number as they were developed in restricted timelines.

“Once we start vaccinating a very large part of our population, there will be a range of people who have been vaccinated at different times, the earliest ones might start losing immunity, they will be vaccinated again, and then over a period of time, the later ones will start losing immunity, they will be vaccinated,” he is quoted as saying in the report.

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The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) approved 'Covaxin' developed by Bharat Biotech and 'Covishield', the local version of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine developed by the Serum Institute of India on January 3.

Commenting on mutant SARS-CoV-2 viruses which have been responsible for much panic across the world, VijayRaghvan said the current vaccine may work against mutant viruses as well.

The Principal Scientific Advisor to the PM said that only three mutants that have risen in the UK, South Africa and Denmark are of concern as they are highly infectious.

The mutated version of the new coronavirus detected in Danish minks had raised concerns about the effectiveness of future vaccines, but it was reported to have likely been eradicated, Denmark's health ministry said Thursday.