Covid Task Force Chief Pitches For Quickly Adaptable Vaccine Platforms

Dr VK Paul said he hopes that coronavirus in India is possibly moving in the direction of endemicity where there is a low or moderate level of transmission going on.

Amid concerns over the Omicron variant of coronavirus, Covid Task Force chief Dr VK Paul on Tuesday said India should have vaccine platforms that are "adaptable quickly" with changing nature of the variants.

Dr Paul said he hopes that coronavirus in India is possibly moving in the direction of endemicity where there is a low or moderate level of transmission going on.

"There is a potential scenario that our vaccines may become ineffective in emerging situations. In the wake of the last three weeks of living with Omicron, we have seen how such doubts have come up. Some of them may be genuine. We still do not have the final picture," he said.

The new and potentially more contagious variant called B.1.1.529 was first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) from South Africa on November 24.