India s Covaxin vaccine likely effective against UK SARS-CoV-2 variant: Study
The worldwide increase in the circulation of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has led to the crossing of the shocking milestone of 100 million reported cases. Among the chief causes of growth in infection numbers have been the emergence of new variants, notably the UK variant, with increased infectivity relative to the ancestral strain. However, a new preprint research paper, posted to the preprint server
bioRxiv , presents data indicating that the Indian-made Covaxin vaccine candidate successfully neutralizes this variant, preventing infection when challenged by it.
The UK variant
The UK variant is also called the Variant of Concern (VOC) 202012/01, also known as lineage B.1.1.7 or 20B/501Y.V1. It has rapidly increased as a proportion of new cases of COVID-19 in the UK in the space of fewer than two months. B.1.1.7 has been sequenced from other countries as well, an