From the Liveblog of
Thursday, April 22, 2021
Health ministry director: Indian variant could be less responsive to vaccine
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleIn a briefing to reporters, the director-general of the Health Ministry says vaccines may be less effective against the “Indian variant” of the coronavirus, adding it has a number of mutations that make it more infections.
“We don’t feel comfortable with it,” Chezy Levy says.
The Health Ministry has so far confirmed seven cases of the variant among seven unvaccinated travelers who returned to Israel from abroad, without revealing where.
The majority of cases were identified through tests conducted at Ben Gurion Airport while the remainder were identified while the arrivals were still quarantining, national coronavirus czar Nachman Ash said earlier this week. He added that not very much is known about the new variant but that it appears to spread rapidly.
The Times of Israel Community.