General News of Tuesday, 22 June 2021
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2021-06-22AstraZeneca, Sputnik V not effective against the Indian strain of coronavirus
An Indian variant of COVID-19 is currently in Ghana
An Indian contagious strain of the novel Coronavirus known as the Delta variant has been detected in Ghana.
Professor Gordon Awendare, Head of the West Africa Center for Cell Biology and Infectious Pathogens, WACCBIP, University of Ghana, confirmed that the Delta variant, which is in Ghana, is one of the 45 variants of
Read full articlehref='/GhanaHomePage/people/person.php?ID=3454'>COVID-19.
Delta variant has been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO), as a “variant of global concern” that has caused huge spikes in India and a serious increase in cases in the UK despite the fact that large sections of the population in those countries are vaccinated.
“Overall, we have about 45 or 46 different variants. The trend shows that all these normally come from travellers. Now that the Delta (Indian Variant) is taking over, it’s just a matter of time before it will come here in large quantities. We have a few here but it’s going to increase,” Professor Awendare explained on Joy Prime.
He said the government should immediately enforce the COVID-19 preventive protocols to stem a potential spread of this deadly variant.
He also called on the controls at the Airport to be tightened to stop more importation of the variant.
Professor Awendare indicated that the AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines are not effective against the Indian variant.
“Now we have to be looking at the right vaccines. All this while, we’ve been fixed on AstraZeneca and Sputnik V but we have to shift towards more of Pfizer and others which have a better chance of protecting against this variant. Because the future is, we are going towards these aggressive variants,” he stressed.
