With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune along with its chief scientists have been at the forefront to deal with the emerging challenges, including expeditious isolation and detection of various strains and their variants, said top scientist of the ICMR-NIV.
As China started reporting its initial COVID-19 cases, NIV began preparing for the testing system & detected the first 3 cases in India in students who returned from Wuhan, added Pragya Yadav
We were apprehensive of Omicron but we were relieved after January when most of the cases were asymptomatic. The Covid variant was not impactful with low death rates. Mass vaccination & research on variants were reasons we could wade off omicron, added Pragya Yadav.
She claimed India has not yet conducted any clinical trials on heterologous mix-and-match vaccine doses but in the US there were two studies that were conducted showing better immunogenicity. 'Even in UP, cohort of people who were given mixed doses showed the same,' added Pragya Yadav.
Currently, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has crossed 184.52 crores on Saturday, as per the provisional reports by 7 am, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The ministry informed that this record has been achieved through 2,20,93,346 sessions of vaccine administration.
