Newer Variants Require Updated Vaccines: WHO Director-General
New Delhi: Amid a rapid upsurge in Covid-19 infections and high transmissibility of the emerging variants of the novel coronavirus, the World Health Organization issued a statement calling for new Covid-19 vaccines two years after the pandemic began.
“Covid-19 vaccines that have high impact on prevention of infection and transmission, in addition to the prevention of severe disease and death, are needed and should be developed,” the World Health Organization’s Technical Advisory Group on Covid-19 Vaccine Composition (TAG-CO-VAC) said in the statement.
Experts in the global health watchdog warned that just repeating booster shots of the original Covid-19 vaccines was “not a viable strategy against emerging variants”.
The WHO had formed the advisory group to review and assess public health implications of emerging SARS-CoV-2 ‘variants of concern’ (VOC) based on the performance of Covid-19 vaccines.
