January 27, 2021: Hyderabad-based vaccine manufacturer Bharat BioTech today posted a tweet on its official Twitter handle in which it claimed that its vaccine was effective against the new more contagious and possibly deadlier UK strain of the coronavirus.
Neutralization of UK-variant VUI-202012/01 with COVAXIN vaccinated human serum https://t.co/v8Me4TzGgh #BharatBiotech #COVAXIN #bioRxiv #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/7R3FlsWAX3
— BharatBiotech (@BharatBiotech) January 27, 2021
Along with the tweet, Bharat BioTech also attached the link to the papers of the scientific study done by scientists at the National Institute of Virology as the backing proof for its claim. A vaccine developed by US company Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech are also the other two vaccines which are supposedly effective against the new strain.
Patrick Vallance, British government’s chief scientist commented that new the strain could be 30 to 40 per cent deadlier although there has not been enough time to have the required amount of data which will help doctors and scientists access whether this strain has a higher degree of mortality or not.
The amount of Covid-related deaths in the UK have increased by 16 per cent in just one week. The number of people currently hospitalized is nearly double of what it was last year when the country was only going through its first wave.
150 cases of the new UK strain of the COVID virus have been reported in India.
