The World Health Organisation (WHO) giving emergency approval to Covovax has recommended that it should be used as a booster shot to fight the threat of COVID-19 new variant Omicron.
One of the directors of government’s genome sequencing monitoring agency INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium), stated Covovax “induces a strong immune response and has an excellent safety profile.”
“I do not think that the approved version, based on ancestral spike protein, will be directly very effective against Omicron since its efficacy against Beta was around 50 per cent (much better than AZ though). It is however better than a third dose AstraZeneca/Covishield as a booster,” he said.
On comparison of Covovax’s immune-response against data from COV-Boost’s vaccine trial, Anurag Agrawal said, “The immune boost, after two doses of AZ/Covishield, was far better for this than inactivated virus vaccine in COV-BOOST. Also, rapid modification of protein is possible for variant-specific immune response.”
