The Hague (AFP)
Two doses of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine appear to protect against the highly contagious Delta variant, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Thursday.
“Emerging data from hard evidence shows that two doses of vaccine protect against the Delta variant,” said Marco Cavaleri, vaccine strategy manager at Amsterdam-based EMA.
The cases of Covid-19 started to increase again last week in Europe after 10 consecutive weeks of decline, announced Thursday the European branch of the World Health Organization (WHO), against the background of the rise of the more contagious Delta variant.
"We are aware of the concerns caused by the rapid spread of the Delta variant," continued Cavaleri.
"At present, it appears that the four vaccines approved in the European Union protect against all strains circulating in Europe, including the Delta variant," he added.
Laboratory tests have also shown that the antibodies whose production is driven by the vaccines were able to neutralize the Delta variant, "very reassuring news" according to Cavaleri.
Four vaccines are currently authorized in the EU by the EMA: Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
The WHO announced Thursday that the coronavirus was advancing again in Europe and warned of a risk of a new wave of the pandemic carried by the Delta variant.
WHO Europe expects the Delta variant of the coronavirus, initially spotted in India and particularly contagious, to become "dominant" by August on the continent.
The EMA on Thursday urged manufacturers to continue to verify that their vaccines remain effective against all new variants of the coronavirus, including the variant called "Delta Plus."
“A number of variants have emerged over the past few months, and we expect more to come,” Cavaleri said.
"Now there is the so-called Delta Plus variant, which is the Delta variant with an additional mutation in the Spike protein, which is also important and we also need to verify that," he added.
© 2021 AFP