Sputnik V shows 97.8 % efficacy against COVID-19 in UAE, protects against severe cases

Sputnik V vaccine has recorded a 97.8 per cent efficacy against COVID-19 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) announced on June 29. In a statement, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, also disclosed that the Sputnik V/Gam-COVID-Vac has shown 100 per cent efficacy against severe cases of coronavirus. The results were based on trials of 81,000 subjects who were immunized using the Russian vaccines in the UAE.

“Efficacy among more than 81,000 subjects who had received both components of Sputnik V was 97.8%. The analysis is based on the data collected by June 8, 2021,” RDIF said.

Sputnik V was the first vaccine to be announced against the coronavirus pathogen. The vaccine is developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology along with the Russian Health Ministry. It uses a weakened virus(Adenoviral vectors) to deliver small parts of a pathogen and stimulate an immune response against SARS-CoV-2.

As per RDIF, none of them showed any kind of adverse effects-hospitalization, deaths, Cerebral vein thrombosis (CVT), myocarditis- following vaccination. Sputnik V was registered in UAE in January 2021 under the emergency use authorization procedure. As of now, Sputnik V has been approved in over 67 countries including Serbia, India, Bahrain, Hungary, Mexico amongst others.

'Protection against all variants' 

Meanwhile, a Russian microbiologist has claimed that Sputnik V can ensure protection against all variants of coronavirus. In a statement, Alexander Gintsburg said, "Antibodies developed after vaccination with #SputnikV protect from all variants of COVID known today, starting from the UK variant to the so-called Delta variant, first detected in India." He said that the vaccine protects a person against all the variants. He noted that the Sputnik V vaccine is effective against the UK variant and Delta variant(B.1.617.2), first detected in India. 

The developers of the Russian Coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V on June 17  said they will soon offer booster doses that will work against the Delta variant of coronavirus, to other vaccine manufacturers. The vaccine manufacturers across the world are divided over administering doses of different COVID-19 vaccines, the makers of Sputnik V have proposed the idea of the 'vaccine cocktail'. 

Image: AP