India's Covaxin jab 'highly efficacious' against Covid-19, variants: Study

India's homegrown Covaxin jab is "highly efficacious" against symptomatic Covid-19, a study by the medical journal Lancet has revealed.

The vaccine, which is developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, is 77.2 per cent effective against Covid-19 and 70.8 per cent effective against all variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The efficacy rate was confirmed through the evaluation of 130 confirmed cases, with 24 observed in the vaccine group, while 106 were in the placebo group.

According to the Phase 3 data published in the study, Covaxin was found to be 65.2 per cent effective against the Delta variant, 93.4 per cent effective against severe symptomatic Covid and 63.6 per cent effective against asymptomatic Covid.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Twitter said Covaxin is “extremely suitable for low- and middle-income countries due to easy storage requirements".

The Lancet study noted that further research is required to discover the vaccine's long-term safety and effectiveness, as well as its ability to protect against severe illness, hospitalisation and death.