Covishield effective against Covid-19 Delta variant: Lancet study

Covishield vaccine remained effective against moderate-to-severe covid-19 even during the deadly surge of the highly transmissible Delta variant, according to a new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

Covishield had an efficacy of 63 percent in fully vaccinated people, while it was 81 percent effective against the moderate-to-severe disease, said the Lancet.

Conducted by Indian researchers, the Lancet study was meant to evaluate the real-world effectiveness of Covishield during the deadly outbreak of the Delta variant between April-May in India that crippled the health infrastructure.

Also watch | Omicron scare: Covid +ve case at airport different from Delta, says Karnataka minister

The researchers assessed the neutralizing activity and cellular immune responses against the variants in healthy vaccinated persons to understand the mechanisms of protection.

Researchers found that the Spike-specific T-cell responses were conserved against both the delta variant and wild-type SARS-CoV-2.