The vaccines currently approved for emergency use in India are Covishield, from the Oxford-AstraZeneca stable manufactured by Pune's Serum Institute of India, and Covaxin, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology (NIV)

The research, published in the journal Nature Medicine, noted that the vaccine is effective against coronavirus variants carrying the N501Y and E484K mutations

Oxford University scientists who developed the ChAdOx1-nCoV19 vaccine have found that it remains effective against at least one of the new variants of the disease, called the B.1.1.7 'Kent' coronavirus strain

Out of the millions of cases around the world, one coronavirus case has stood out. The case is of a 45-year-old Covid-19 patient from Boston who died last summer after fighting for 154 days of illness--one of the longest on record

Scientists say the new South African variant has multiple mutations in the important \"spike\" protein that the virus uses to infect human cells

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan slammed senior Congress party leaders Shashi Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh, and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav for politicising the 'critical issue'

The SEC has recommended Covaxin for emergency use authorisation; the recommendation, along with rollout modalities, will now be taken up by the DCGI for a final decision on the matter

Fauci's remarks came during an online discussion of the pandemic with California Governor Gavin Newsom, who announced at the outset that a highly infectious coronavirus variant originally found in Britain has been detected in his state

CSIR-CCMB in Hyderabad, which is among the ten research institutes tracing the new Covid-19 strain in India, says the new strain has not worsened the Covid-19 symptoms so far in India but there's a need to keep a tab on other new variants that might emerge

It is important from the scientific community perspective that we do not put too much immune pressure on the virus, said Bhargava

Bharat Biotech MD also said the company has approached regulatory authorities seeking approval for an emergency license to use the vaccine, developed in collaboration with ICMR and the National Institute of Virology and now undergoing phase 3 trials

Until now, six individuals have shown traces of the new variant of coronavirus in India. All these individuals have been kept under isolation in designated health care facilities by respective state governments. Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine

The new variant - B.1.1.7 - has left the world abuzz with questions and concerns, while many countries including India have suspended international travel ties with the United Kingdom

Dr Panda struck a cautious tone and said, 'We need to keep a track of humans infected...If all the clinical indications like the severity of the disease, fatality rate are remaining low, we don't need to panic at all but we need to be watchful'

The UK has identified a fast-spreading new variant of coronavirus that is 70% more transmissible than existing strains. A similar mutation was also reported from South Africa and countries like Netherlands and Denmark

If needed, the company could provide a new vaccine technically within six weeks to deal with the new mutated strain detected in Britain, says BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin

Meanwhile, a passenger, who returned to Chennai from Britain via New Delhi, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus

Sahin's calm stance about the virus mutation in the UK resonates with the World Health Organisation, which warned against major alarm, calling this a normal part of the pandemic's evolution

With this mutant coronavirus strain bursting on to the scene, the most important question that has been raised is that -will the existing COVID-19 vaccines work against this new mutation of the coronavirus?