The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said that two doses of the Kovid-19 vaccine protect against the highly infectious delta variant.
“The data emerging from hard evidence suggests that two doses of the vaccine protect against the delta variant,” said Marco Cavallari, vaccine strategy manager at the Amsterdam-based EMA.
The European arm of the World Health Organization (WHO), against the backdrop of the rise of the more contagious delta variant, began a spike in COVID-19 cases in Europe again last week after a 10-week decline.
“We are aware of the concerns caused by the rapid spread of the delta variant,” Cavallari continued.
“Currently, it appears that the four EU-approved vaccines protect against all strains circulating in Europe, including the delta version,” he said.
Laboratory tests also showed that the antibodies produced by the vaccines were able to neutralize the delta variant, “very reassuring news,” according to Cavallari.
Four vaccines are currently authorized by the EMA in the EU: Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
The WHO announced that the coronavirus was on the rise again in Europe and warned of the risk of a new wave of pandemics carried by the Delta variant.
WHO Europe expects the delta version of the coronavirus, initially seen in India and particularly contagious, to become “dominant” on the continent by August.
The EMA has urged manufacturers to continue to verify that their vaccines are effective against all new forms of the coronavirus, including a version called “Delta Plus”.
“A number of variants have emerged over the past few months, and we expect more to come,” Cavallari said.
“There is now the so-called delta plus variant, which is the delta version with an additional mutation in the spike protein, which is also important and we also need to verify that,” he said.
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