Seeking fast-track approval for its Covid-19 vaccine, the US pharma giant Pfizer has told the Indian authorities that the Pfizer vaccine shows high effectiveness against the Indian-dominant Covid variant. Pfizer has also said that its vaccine is suitable for everyone aged 12 years or older and can be stored for a month at 2-8 degrees Celsius.

Pfizer stated recent data points support the strong efficacy of the BNT612b2 2-dose regimen against SARS-CoV-2 variants and among patients of Indian ethnicity. In an observational research, the UK’s Public Health England observed strong vaccination efficacy (87.9%) against the B.1.617.2 strain which is most often reported in India.

Pfizer, which plans to offer 5 crore doses of its vaccine to India between July and October, has sought some relaxations from the Indian government including indemnification. It has had a number of meetings with Indian government officials recently, during which it gave the most recent data on effectiveness studies and approvals for its vaccine in various nations and by the World Health Organization.

The two sides have held a series of meetings over the past few weeks, some of which also involved Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla to resolve issues including grant of legal indemnity.

None of the three vaccines currently approved for use in India – Covishield, Covaxin or Sputnik V – have been given such protection. Neither of India’s approved vaccines have been cleared for use on those below 18, although Covaxin is expected to begin trials for the 2-18 age group by the month’s end.

Children and young adults – who some experts fear could be the target of the third wave – accounted for fewer than 10% of new cases this month but week-by-week numbers showed an increase.

The company, however, is open to considering surveillance of the first 100 subjects to get its vaccine.

Last week Delhi and Punjab government had approached Pfizer for vaccines but the company rejected offers citing their policies.

India has administered over 20 crore vaccine doses so far but is still a long way short of vaccinating a significant-enough proportion of its 130-crore population.

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A shortage of vaccine doses is believed to be one of the primary reasons for the recent slowdown, with several states flagging low stocks and being forced to suspend vaccination for the 18-44 age group.

At present India has Covishield and Covaxin while a third – Russia’s Sputnik V – has been approved and is to be rolled out soon.

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A World Health Organization report said on Wednesday that the India-dominant Covid variant has now been officially recorded in 53 territories. Additionally, the WHO has received information from unofficial sources that the B.1.617 variant has been found in seven other territories, figures in the UN health agency’s weekly epidemiological update showed, taking the total to 60.

The report said B.1.617 had shown increased transmissibility while disease severity and risk of infection were under investigation. Globally over the past week, the number of new cases and deaths continued to decrease, with around 4.1 million new cases and 84,000 new deaths reported – a 14% and 2% decrease respectively compared to the previous week.

The WHO’s European region reported the largest decline in new cases and deaths in the past seven days, followed by the southeast Asia region. The numbers of cases reported by the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean, Africa and the Western Pacific region were similar to those reported in the previous week.

The document said despite a declining global trend over the past four weeks, incidence of Covid-19 cases and deaths remain high and substantial increases have been observed in many countries throughout the world.

The highest numbers of new cases in the past seven days were reported from India (1,846,055 — down 23%); Brazil (451,424 — up 3%), Argentina (213,046 — up 41%), the United States (188,410 — down 20%) and Colombia (107,590 — down 7%).

The first has been reported in a total of 41 territories, the second in 54 and the third in six: Britain, Canada, Germany, India, Russia and the United States. Together, lineages of the B.1.617 variant were officially recorded in 53 territories and unofficially in another seven.

The update also listed six variants of interest that are being monitored.

One was first discovered in multiple countries, two of them were first found in the United States, while the three others were first discovered in Brazil, the Philippines and France. The report said virus evolution is expected and the more SARS-CoV-2 circulates, the more opportunities it has to evolve.

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The report said that reducing transmission through established and proven disease-control methods are crucial aspects of the global strategy to reduce the occurrence of mutations that have negative public health implications.

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The World Health Organization on Wednesday said that a variant of Covid-19 which has led to an explosive outbreak in India has been detected in 44 countries all over the world.

The B.1.617 variant of Covid-19 which was first detected in India in October, had been found in more than 4,500 samples uploaded to an open-access database from 44 countries in all six WHO regions, as reported by the UN health agency.

Earlier, the WHO declared B.1.617 as a ‘variant of concern’, which counts three so-called sub-lineages with slightly different mutations and characteristics. It has been therefore listed among three other variants of Covid-19 those first detected in Britain, Brazil and South Africa.

Owing to be more transmitting than the original virus, deadly and able to get past some vaccine protections, the health organisation has added this virus to the list. It has pointed out that its rapid increase is in prevalence in multiple countries.

In preliminary evidence, the variant was more resistant to treatment with the monoclonal antibody Bamlanivimab, pointed out WHO. It also highlighted early studies indicating limited reduction in neutralization by antibodies, stressing upon the limited effectiveness of vaccines against the variant as far as its real impacts on the world is concerned.

The health organisation said that the spread of B.1.617, alongside other more transmittable variants, appeared to be one of the several reasons for the dramatic surge in Covid new cases and related deaths in India. 

After the US, the country  is the world’s second-most infected with nearly 23 million Covid-19 cases, and is currently recording more than 300,000 new cases and close to 4,000 deaths each day. The unprecedented surge has affected major cities, including the capital New Delhi and financial hub Mumbai, pushing hospitals to breaking point and leading to severe shortages in oxygen and beds.

The resurgence and acceleration of Covid-19 transmission in India had several potential contributing factors, including increase in the proportion of cases of SARS-CoV-2 variants with potentially increased transmissibility, the WHO said. It also pointed to several religious and political mass gathering events which increased social mixing and, under-use of and reduced adherence to public health and social measures.

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So far, only 0.1 percent of positive Covid tests in India had been genetically sequenced and uploaded to the GISAID database to identify the variant in question. By the end of April, B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2 accounted for 21 and seven percent respectively of all sequenced samples from India, it said.

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