Can Corona Vaccines Control New COVID Strain, Lessen Mortality? Read What AIIMS Director Says

New Coronavirus Strain: Saying that there is nothing to worry about the new coronavirus strain, AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria added that the Centre needs to monitor the situation closely and look aggressively for all variants.

New Coronavirus Strain Latest Updates: At a time when the new coronavirus strain has been confirmed in a number of states, AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria on Wednesday said that the corona vaccine will be able to control the spread of the virus and lessen the mortality rate. He also said even vaccines with efficacy of 70%, 80%, 90% will still be effective in preventing the virus from further spreading.

“Vaccines will definitely prevent serious disease and therefore decease the mortality as far as new (coronavirus) strain is concern. Currently, we have vaccines whose efficacy is 70%, 80%, 90%, so even if there is a slight fall in efficacy it will still be effective,” Dr Guleria stated.

Saying that there is nothing to worry about the new coronavirus strain, Guleria added that India needs to monitor the situation closely and look aggressively for all variants.

“As of now, we don’t need to worry but we need to monitor the situation closely and look aggressively for all variants and make sure that none of them becomes totally new and our vaccines efficacy falls,” the AIIMS Director added.

He also added, “We have to keep changing the vaccines to take into account the new variants that are emerging.”

Earlier this week, he had said that the herd immunity for coronavirus is a “myth” in India because at least 80 per cent people need to have antibodies for the whole of the population to be protected.

He has also highlighted that the new Indian strains found in Maharashtra could be highly transmissible and dangerous, and can even cause re-infections in people who have developed anti-bodies to the virus in an interview to NDTV.

Apart from Maharashtra, four more states such as Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Punjab have been witnessing a spike in number of coronavirus cases.