MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/: The State Scientific Center of Virology and Biotechnology "Vector," located in Novosibirsk, hopes to obtain a sample of the Indian strain of the novel coronavirus soon. The strain will take about two months to examine, the center told TASS.
"The Vector center is one of the World Health Organization’s 26 reference laboratories for COVID-19. We hope to obtain a sample of the Indian strain of the virus from our foreign counterparts soon. Comprehensive examination of the new strain’s properties, including the effectiveness of the vaccine against it, will take about two months," the news release runs.
Vector believes that theoretically its vaccine EpiVacCorona should be as affective against the Indian strain as it is in relation to the reference strain.
At the end of March, India’s Health Ministry said a new variety of the coronavirus with mutations E484Q and L452R in the S protein had been identified. The existence of both mutations, which were earlier identified in other variants of the virus around the world, looks particularly alarming. These mutations are found in about 15%-20% samples and are absent from the British, South African and Brazilian strains.
