How efficient are existing vaccines on Omicron Covid variant? Here’s all you need to know

New Delhi: Till now there is no evidence that the existing vaccine may not work against the new variant of Covid-19, Omicron, however, the spike in mutations suggests that it might decrease the efficiency of the existing vaccines, said the Centre on Tuesday.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, in reply to the Rajya Sabha through a written note, said, “There are limited available data, and no peer-reviewed evidence, on vaccine efficacy or effectiveness to date for Omicron.”

Mandaviya was responding when he was asked about that whether the vaccines given in India are effective to work against the current variant.

“However, vaccine protection is also by antibodies as well as by cellular immunity, which is expected to be relatively better preserved. Hence vaccines are expected to still offer protection against severe disease and, vaccination with the available vaccines remains crucial,” he added.

Mandaviya focused on the steps taken by the government as soon as cases regarding the spread of Omicron in different countries were reported. He stated that his ministry based on risk assessment reviewed the travel guidelines while revised rules for international travels to India were issued on November 28 which was further revised two days later.

Besides, the states and the Union Territories have been asked to issue several activities including strict monitoring of international travellers, contact tracing of infected individuals and follow-up for 14 days, genome sequencing of positive samples through INSACOG Labs instantly.

Mandaviya stated that travellers coming from the countries titled as “at-risk” will have to go through an RT-PCR test followed by seven days home quarantine.

Also, on the eighth day, the individual(s) has to undergo a second RT-PCR test which is to be monitored by the state health authorities. 2% of traveller from the “non-at-risk” countries will be tested randomly for Covid-19.

The infected travellers shall be subjected to Whole Genomic Sequencing at identified INSACOG network laboratories to understand the presence of SARS-CoV-2 variants (including Omicron).