Two doses of Covishield have 65% efficacy against Delta strain, says Covid Working Group chief

A single shot of the Covishield vaccine has an efficacy of 61% against the Delta variant of coronavirus, while two doses provide 65% protection, NK Arora, the head of India’s Covid Working Group, told NDTV on Wednesday.

In an interview to the news channel, Arora referred to a study conducted by the Christian Medical College in Vellore, which was first reported last week. Arora said that the study was conducted “in the middle” of the second wave of the pandemic, which was majorly caused due to the B.1.617, or Delta variant, first detected in India.

The study, which is yet to be peer-reviewed, involves observations made on 8,991, or 84.8% of its staff members who received the Covishield vaccine, while the remaining were administered Covaxin. The study reports the incidence of symptomatic Covid-19 infection among the workers between February 21 and May 19.

Besides the vaccine efficacy quoted by Arora, the study also showed that one dose of the Covishield shot reduced the risk of hospitalisation by 70% and two doses by 77%.

In his interview, Arora said that the Covid Working Group and the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation relied on the data from studies conducted by the Vellore Hospital and Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education Research in…

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