New Delhi : Primitive study on the effectiveness of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine showed lower
neutralizing capacity against the new variant Omicron in comparison to the variant detected
in Wuhan at the beginning of the pandemic. The study conducted in the Africa Health
Research Institute (AHRI) in South Africa on samples from people who had received Pfizer
Covid vaccine showed that dual doses along with a reinfection was able to effectively evade
the new variant, calling for administration of booster doses for effective production of
antibodies against the infection.

Highlighting findings from the study conducted on people vaccinated with Pfzer, Alex Sigal, a
professor at the Africa Health Research Institute, said, ‘a very large drop’ in neutralization of
the Omicron variant relative to an earlier strain of Covid-19.The lab tested blood from 12
people who had been vaccinated with two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, according
to a manuscript posted on the website for his lab.”

Meanwhile, the addition of two more Omicron cases detected in Mumbai on Monday took the
total cases tally to 23 in India. The first two cases were followed by ten cases in Maharashtra,
nine in Rajasthan and one each in Gujarat and the national capital Delhi. The rapid rise
witnessed in cases across the globe has raised concerns about the spread of Omicron and
the possibility of this variant being detected in new cases recorded within the country.

As the calls rise for booster dose administration to health workers in India due to the onset of
highly transmissible variant Omicron, Serum Institute of India on Tuesday said that they will
be slashing their Covishield production capacity by 50 per cent in view of no new orders from
the Center. Covishield vaccine has been administered to the majority of the Indian population
under the vaccination drive along with Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. The current capacity stands
at 250-275 million doses a month which was increased two-fold from the earlier capacity of
100-110 million doses.