New Delhi: An ICMR study has indicated that a booster dose of Covaxin is safe and necessary to ensure persistent immunity to minimise breakthrough infections of COVID-19, due to newly emerging variants, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar informed Parliament on Friday.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has conducted studies on the effectiveness and side-effects of COVID-19 vaccines, Ms Pawar said in Lok Sabha in reply to a written question.
A multi-centric, hospital-based, case-control study was conducted between May and July 2021, in which vaccine effectiveness of complete vaccination was found to be 85 per cent in Covishield and 71 per cent in Covaxin.
The vaccine effectiveness estimates were found to be similar against the Delta strain and sub-lineages, Ms Pawar said.
A second study assessed the persistence of immunogenicity up to six months after a two or three-dose with Covaxin. The results of the study indicated that a booster dose of Covaxin is safe and necessary to ensure persistent immunity to minimize breakthrough infections of COVID-19, due to newly emerging variants.
A six-month analysis of the study titled ‘Immune response to precautionary third dose of Covishield/Covaxin among healthy adult population: an ICMR Cohort study, India” shows robust immune response with both vaccines, she said in her reply.
