Covaxin, which is a Made-in-India COVID-19 vaccine, is able to neutralise multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2 and effectively works against the double mutant strain as well, claimed the  Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday. Bharat Biotech's Covaxin has received Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for treating COVID-19 infected patients in India and in many other nations.

"ICMR study shows #COVAXIN neutralises against multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2 and effectively neutralises the double mutant strain as well. @MoHFW_INDIA
@DeptHealthRes
#IndiaFightsCOVID19 #LargestVaccineDrive," ICMR tweeted.

The ICMR made the revelation at a time when India is witnessing a massive surge in COVID-19 infection cases, IBNS said.

India witnessed a massive spike in COVID-19 deaths as 2023 people died due to the virus in the past 24 hours, as per the Ministry of Health website.

Amid 300,000 cases and over 2,000 deaths in the last 24 hours in India, triple mutant coronavirus has emerged as a fresh challenge in the Covid-19 battle, media reports said.

The current coronavirus wave had been attributed to double mutant strain of coronavirus which was said to be more infectious. Now, the triple mutant, meaning three different Covid strains combining to form a new variant, has been found in parts of the country, said an NDTV report quoted by IBNS..

Cases in Maharashtra, Delhi and West Bengal are believed to have infections caused by triple mutant variants, said the report.

Madhukar Pai, professor of epidemiology at McGill University, told NDTV that the triple variant is a more transmissible variant. The more the virus spreads, the more it replicates and the more it mutates, according to experts.

He said the vaccines have to be tweaked to deal with the new variants which require genome sequencing on war-footing and understanding of the disease.

Triple mutants are not only causing fresh infection spikes in India but across the world.

Double mutants have more severe pathogenicity, say, scientists, show increased transmission rate and affect children too, according to scientists.