The Indian variant of SARS-CoV-2 is in Poland, but the available vaccines offer protection against it as well. There is also no evidence that the new variant causes COVID-19 infections more severe than the British variant. This information, along with news about how many Polish residents have received the vaccine, does not exclude from common sense, that is, compliance with the DDM principle: distance, disinfection, masks.

The emergence of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 variant in Poland (abbreviated B.1.617) was only a matter of time – despite travel restrictions, people are still moving around the world. Option B.1.617 was first identified in India in the third quarter of 2020. In the United Kingdom, it was identified in February of this year.

Health Minister Andrzej Niedzielski reported on May 4 that there were two outbreaks of the Indian coronavirus mutation in Poland: near Warsaw and Katowice. There have been 16 cases of infection with this type of pathogen. This, of course, does not mean that there are no longer such cases – not all samples taken from infected patients were arranged to identify the variant of the coronavirus.

– This variant is a combination of two mutations, but in the course of vaccination it does not really matter. This may be important for virus detection, for some treatment options, but generally not for the protection provided by available vaccines, says the virologist. Włodzimierz Gut from the National Institute of Public Health – National Hygiene Institute.

Also Doctor Love. Piotr Rzymski, a biologist at the Medical University of Poznan, asserts that there is no evidence that the Indian variant can break the protection that vaccines provide. He notes that the antibodies of people who were vaccinated with an inactivated Indian vaccine were found to neutralize it. In his opinion, it can thus be concluded that this is also the case with other vaccines.

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In India, AstraZeneki vaccine and inactivated Indian vaccine are used. However, the vaccination program in this densely populated country is not being implemented fast enough. In a country of about 1.4 billion people, about 10 million have been vaccinated with at least one dose.

a. Gut notes that the trivial evidence that vaccines protect against the Indian variant comes from the UK: more than 60 percent. In the population already vaccinated with at least one dose of the vaccine, many restrictions have been relaxed, and despite the fact that the Indian variant in the United Kingdom was discovered much earlier than in other European countries – in February of this year – the United Kingdom It can boast of a downward curve for both new infections and people hospitalized with COVID-19 and deaths from this disease. The day before, a patient died from this disease.