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Coronavirus pandemic

Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine effective against Indian coronavirus strain, says expert

India’s health ministry reported in late March that a new coronavirus variant with E484Q and L452R mutations in the S protein had been detected in the country

Director of the Gamaleya Center Alexander Gintsburg Mikhail Japaridze/TASS

Director of the Gamaleya Center Alexander Gintsburg

© Mikhail Japaridze/TASS

MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/. The Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine gives enough antibodies to combat the virus’ Indian strain, Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya Center, the vaccine developer, told TASS on Tuesday.

"If necessary, we will combat the Indian strain by high titers of antibodies triggered by the Sputnik V vaccine. As a rule, it generates antibodies 20, 30, 80 times as much as necessary to neutralize the biggest amount of the virus in an infected organism. Sputnik V will be effective against the Indian strain," he said.

Read also

Russia must reach 80% COVID-19 herd immunity to contain spread of British strain — expert

India’s health ministry reported in late March that a new coronavirus variant with E484Q and L452R mutations in the S protein had been detected in the country. The ministry said that it was especially worrying that the new strain had two mutations previously observed in other virus variants. It was also reported that these mutations occurred in some 15-20% of samples and were detected in the British, South African, and Brazilian strains.

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