US Vaccines Partially, Probably 'Quite Protective' Against India COVID-19 Strain - Fauci

US Vaccines Partially, Probably 'Quite Protective' Against India COVID-19 Strain - Fauci

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th May, 2021) Current vaccines in use in the United States have proven "partially and probably protective" against the B.1.617 coronavirus variant raging in India, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday.

"If you look at a number of studies, again, that have come out literally within the last few days, on each of them, the neutralization resistance to the 617 antibody suggests that the current vaccines that we are all using - that we've been speaking about - would be at least partially and probably quite protective," Fauci, who is member of the White House COVID-19 Response Team, said.

The B.1.617 coronavirus variant has become the dominant strain across India and has spread to about 40 nations, including the United Kingdom and Singapore.

India is the second-worst coronavirus-infected country after the United States, with more than 25 million cases and over 258,000 virus-related deaths.

The United States has approved three coronavirus vaccines: a two-shot Moderna vaccine for individuals aged 18 and above, a two-shot Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for individuals aged 12 and above and a single-shot Johnson & Johnson-Janssen for individuals ages 18 and above.

Some 274 million coronavirus vaccines have been administered to Americans to date, with about 124 million, or 37.7 percent of the population, being "fully vaccinated" with two doses each.