Health
Mixed COVID vaccines show better response than 2 doses of single vaccine: ICMR
New Delhi: Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that people who had “inadvertently received Covishield as the first jab and Covaxin as the second”, showed better immunogenicity than those who received two doses of the same vaccine.
In a recent study, the council said 18 villagers in Siddarthnagar, Uttar Pradesh, had received Covaxin as the second dose in May, six weeks after they got Covishield. The study compared their reaction to 40 recipients of two doses of Covishield and 40 recipients of two doses of Covaxin, The Indian Express reported quoting the ICMR study.
“We compared the safety and immunogenicity profile of them (the group of 18) against that of individuals receiving either Covishield or Covaxin. Lower and similar adverse events following immunisation in all three groups underlined the safety of the combination vaccine-regime,” said the study which is yet to be peer-reviewed.
“Immunogenicity profile against Alpha, Beta and Delta variants in the heterologous group was superior; IgG antibody and neutralising antibody response of the participants was also significantly higher compared to that in the homologous groups,” it said.
“Overall, this study demonstrates that immunisation with a heterologous combination of an adenovirus vector platform-based vaccine followed by an inactivated whole virus vaccine is safe and elicits better immunogenicity than two doses of homologous vaccination, using the same vaccines,” it said.
Meanwhile, India reported 35,499 COVID cases in the past 24 hours, slightly higher than Sunday’s 39,070, taking the total infections to over 3.19 crore. As many as 447 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours taking the total fatalities to over 4.28 lakh so far.
Active Covid cases have declined to 4.02 lakh in India. Active cases constitute 1.26 per cent of total infections. 39,686 patients recovered in the last 24 hours taking total recoveries so far to over 3.11 crore.
The recovery rate has increased to 97.40 per cent. The daily positivity rate is at 2.59 per cent – less than 3 per cent for 14 straight days in a sign of relief.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared COVID positivity rate below 5 per cent to be within the safe zone.
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