Sputnik V gives 90% protection against Delta variant

Viral vector and mRNA vaccines, including Russia's Sputnik V, provide enough protection against the new Delta variant of Covid-19, a leading Russian scientist said.

Head of the Novosibirsk State University's Laboratory and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Sergey Netesov the country’s state news agency Sputnik.

"According to data from the UK, the US and other countries, mRNA and vector vaccines, including our Sputnik V, protect against it [the Delta variant], albeit to a lesser extent, but they do protect against it. They offered 95% protection against the initial strain and now they give 90% protection against the ‘Delta’ variant," he said.

The vaccines, Netesov said, already developed should be used as they are quite effective.

At the end of June, President Vladimir Gushchin, the head of the population variability mechanisms laboratory of the Gamaleya research center that developed the Sputnik V vaccine, said that the Russian shots guarantee almost 100% protection against severe and fatal cases of Covid-19 caused by the Delta strain.

Russia became the first country in the world to register a vaccine against the coronavirus, dubbed Sputnik V, in August 2020.

According to an interim analysis from a trial published in The Lancet medical journal, the Sputnik V vaccine has 91.6 percent efficacy. Meanwhile, the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, which developed Sputnik V, and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) have reported that Sputnik V has 97.6% efficacy.

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The latest update about the vaccine may appear as a relief for the world, which has been witnessing a surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths mainly due to the deadlier variant.

The variant has spread to about 100 countries including Bangladesh and WHO warns it could soon become the dominant form of the virus.

Bangladesh wants to procure five million doses of Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine from Russia as soon as possible.

The Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) of Bangladesh in late April approved emergency use of the vaccine.

The Sputnik V vaccine has already been registered in 64 more countries, including in North and South America, the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa.