Covid-19 vaccine to have efficacy between 50-100%: ICMR

India registered nearly 83,000 fresh cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, which took the overall case count in the country past the 56-lakh mark.

According to the health ministry, the number of total recoveries remained more than the number of new infections for the fifth consecutive day. Total recoveries in the country are now more than 45 lakh, pushing the recovery rate to 80.86%.

With several vaccines at the human trials stage Meanwhile, Dr. Balram Bhargava, the director general of Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) had stated that no vaccines for respiratory diseases has 100% efficacy and the ones who have efficacy between 50% to 100% can only be accepted.

“All the vaccines for respiratory viruses are not 100% effective. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that there are three things key for a vaccine: safety (how safe it is for human use), immunogenicity (whether it is able to provoke body’s immune response) and its efficacy (how effective it is against the virus),” said director general, ICMR, Dr Balram Bhargava.

“And WHO says even if we get 50% efficacy that is more than acceptable. So for respiratory viruses we will never get a vaccine with 100% efficacy. We are obviously aiming at 100% efficacy but we may get anywhere between 50 to 100%,” he added.

The comment comes a day after drug regulator, Central Drugs and Standard Control Organization, issued a draft guidance note for COVID-19 vaccines that suggested researchers may not necessarily look for the preventive capacity of a candidate, and settled or one that protects a person from developing severe infection.