Preliminary results from a study have revealed that Covishield protects against the B.1.617 variant of coronavirus, also called the double mutant strain, stated Rakesh Mishra, director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology.

He mentioned that the study was conducted by the CCMB, an institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Mishra tweeted that early results using in vitro neutralization assay demonstrated that both convalescent sera and Covishield-vaccinated sera protected against the B.1.617 variant.

The B.1.617 variant carries mutations from two different virus variants - E484Q and L452R. There has been apprehension among experts that the new variant could increase infection rates and easily evade immune response… (HT – PTI, April 23, 2021)