New Delhi, Nov 27, : South Africa’s health minister said that the currently available vaccines against Covid-19 are effective against the newly discovered omicron Covid variant. In South Africa, the new variant, B.1.1.529 has been detected in a small number of cases.The variant was assigned by the World Health Organization (WHO), Friday’s Omicron Greek letter.
CNBC reported that South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla believes vaccines are still effective in preventing severe Covid, as indicated by CNBC.
Phaahla said that the Omicron variant might be more transmissible because of its genetic composition.
The world’s largest manufacturers of Covid-19 vaccines stated Friday that they are working quickly to adapt their shots to a highly mutated strain.
According to the WHO, the risk of re-infection may be higher with the new strain than with previous mutations.
According to the report, Pfizer and BioNTech have said that they are currently investigating the new, highly mutated variant.
According to the companies, they can adapt their mRNA vaccinations in six weeks and ship batches within 100 days if there is an escape variant.
Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca also indicated that they are currently testing the new variant.
Moderna stated that it will test three booster candidates for omicron, and possibly at a higher dose level.
According to a statement, the company will also develop a booster dose that is specific for this variant.
The South African variant has approximately 50 mutations.
More than 30 of these are on the spike protein, which allows the virus to attach to human cells.
Although the spread of this new variant is still in its infancy, it’s not clear how severe an infection could be for vaccinated people.
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