Sputnik V, AstraZeneca, vaccines potent against Covid-19 Delta variant – GHS

The Ghana Health Service has described as untrue claims that Sputnik V vaccine and AstraZeneca vaccines are not effective against the Delta strain of COVID-19.

The Head of the West Africa Center for Cell Biology and Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) of the University of Ghana, Professor Gordon Awendare, in an interview on Monday, confirmed that the Delta strain is one of the 45 variants which are currently in Ghana.

Giving details about the nature of the new strain, Prof Gordon Awendare said the AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines may not be entirely effective against the variant.

“Now we have to be looking at the right vaccines. All this while, we’ve been fixed on AstraZeneca and Sputnik V, but we have to shift towards more Pfizer and others that have a better chance of protecting against this variant. Because the future is, we are going towards these aggressive variants”, Prof Gordon Awendare stressed.

But the Ghana Health Service in a statement described the claims as false.

“On the issue of vaccines, reports that Sputnik V, AstraZeneca vaccines are not effective against the Delta strain of SARS-Cov-2(the virus that causes COVID-19) are not true.”

“According to Public Health England, two doses of the Oxford-Astrazaneca vaccine are highly effective against hospitalization due to the Delta variant and showed no deaths among those vaccinated. The data also suggest that Astrazaneca vaccine is effective against syntomatic disease caused by the Delta variant.”