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Covid-19 vaccination: Covishield less potent on S. African strain 

15 Mar 2021

Sri Lanka’s health experts have said that the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine, which is the AstraZeneca version produced in India by the Serum Institute of India (SII), has low efficacy against the South African variant, also known as 501.V2 or B.1.351. Speaking to The Morning yesterday (14), Association of Government Medical Laboratory Technologists President Ravi Kumudesh claimed that countries such as France and South Africa have rejected the Covishield vaccine due to its low efficacy against the mutated variants. The Covid-19 virus has undergone many mutations and so far, three new variants have been identified by scientists including one from the UK, one from Brazil, and one from South Africa. “The World Health Organisation pointed out that these variants are one of the most contagious variants of Covid-19. Existing vaccines can be useless or have low antibody protection, considering the strains spread rapidly when compared to the ones that were transmitted at the beginning of this pandemic,” Kumudesh said. The appearance of the new variant from the UK has raised alarm in the country and the South African variant has been detected in Sri Lanka already. When contacted yesterday, Ministry of Health Epidemiology Unit Consultant Epidemiologist Dr. Deepa Gamage claimed that the Covishield vaccine response to the variant from the UK is effective but added that it may not be sufficiently effective against the South African variant. “It all depends on the strain. We cannot say Covishield is less effective.” When inquired about the SARS-CoV-2 variant which belongs to the B.1.351 lineage and originated in South Africa, she said that it has still not spread to the community.


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