Covishield booster needed for effective neutralization: NIV | Fusion - WeRIndia

Vaccination against COVID-19 has been going on in the country for more than a year.

Due to an upsurge in the number of COVID-19 cases in many states, the central government wanted to control it. It recommended a booster or precautionary dose for all adult citizens in the country.

In this context, the National Institute of Virology, Pune, in association with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), conducted a study on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. The study revealed that people with no history of COVID-19, if taken the Covishield vaccine, had the lowest neutralizing power against the BA.1 variant of Omicron.

The researchers reported that an individual was infected three times with COVID-19 even after taking two doses of the Covishield vaccine. The person is a healthcare professional from Delhi.

He had tested positive in the first wave of COVID-19, with symptoms like fever, body pains, and a dry cough. Despite having no severe symptoms like breathlessness, he experienced symptoms of long COVID like general weakness and insomnia for around three months.

He was vaccinated later with two doses of Covishield, but he had a breakthrough infection with Delta. He had reinfection with Omicron in the third wave. All this happened in 16 months.

He tested positive for COVID-19 in the second wave, with symptoms of body pain and headache. Again, during the third wave, he had reinfection with a headache. He was asymptomatic for two months before suffering from a headache.

Scientists say that vaccination reduces the severity of the disease and mortality. But, it cannot protect people from getting a breakthrough infection.

They also said that though booster doses increased the immune response against the Omicron variant in the studies, it had been diminished with time.

Hence, they asked people to follow all COVID-19 protocols like wearing facemasks, maintaining physical distance etc. The study was published in the Journal of Infection.

Meanwhile, India reported 2,541 new COVID cases and 30 deaths in the last 24 hours.

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