The efficacy of Covishield and Covaxin are only 70 to 80 per cent and around 20 per cent of the Covid-19 vaccinated population in Odisha is not developing antibodies, said Ajay Parida, Director of Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) on Saturday.
“The vaccination drive is going on at a good pace in Odisha. But around 20 percent people are not developing antibodies even after getting the double dose due to individual difference in genetic order. The fact has been revealed through an antibody genome sequencing study,” said Parida.
“These people along with children are vulnerable to Covid-19 infection. They need to be extra careful in order to avoid infection during the possible third wave of the pandemic,” he said.
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The top health official informed that Indian government is mulling for a third dose, or a booster dose, to the people who have are not developing antibodies despite getting double doses of the vaccine.
“A decision regarding the booster dose will be taken soon. Deliberation is on whether the people with little antibodies should take the vaccine of the same or different brand,” he said.
Meanwhile, Parida assured that no new variant of the virus except Delta Plus has been found in India so far.
“We have tested around 600 samples across the country, but didn’t find any new mutant of the virus. If we are careful enough, we will manage to avoid the third wave of the pandemic,” he said.
Meanwhile, Odisha reported 630 new Covid-19 cases including 116 positives from under-18 category age group in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative positive tally in the State to 1015713. Of the new cases, 368 cases have been detected from quarantine while 262 are local contact cases. The active cases have come down to 7020. On the other hand, eight more persons succumbed to the virus taking the cumulative death toll to 8,092 in the State.