Antibodies triggered by two Chinese COVID-19 vaccines are less effective against the Delta variant compared with other strains but the shots still offer protection, a Chinese disease control researcher told state media.
The Delta variant of the new coronavirus, first detected in India, is becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease with its increased transmissibility, the World Health Organization's chief scientist warned last week.
In an interview aired by China Central Television late on Thursday, Feng Zijian, researcher and former deputy director at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, did not provide further details.
Without naming the two vaccines, Feng said they fell into the category of inactivated vaccines, which contain "killed" coronavirus that cannot replicate in human cells.
Five out of the seven domestically developed vaccines in China's mass inoculation scheme are inactivated vaccines. These include shots from Sinovac Biotech and Sinopharm used in countries such as Brazil, Bahrain and Chile.
Meanwhile, Moscow authorities reimposed work-from-home restrictions Friday as the Russian capital posted a new daily record for Covid-19 deaths due to a surging outbreak of the Delta variant.
In a decree published on his website, the city's mayor Sergei Sobyanin ordered that businesses cut their number of in-office workers by 30 percent from June 28.
Vaccinated employees would be excluded, the decree said, adding that all workers aged over 65 as well as those with pre-existing conditions would have to work from home.
The new measures come as Russia has seen an explosion of new cases since mid-June driven by the highly infectious Delta variant first identified India.
In Moscow, the epicentre of Russia's outbreak, the variant represents 90 percent of new infections, Sobyanin has said.
Another report adds, as countries struggle to contain the second outbreak of the pandemic, the global Covid-19 caseload crossed 180.8 million.
The total caseload and fatalities from the virus stand at 180,886,684 and 3,918,472, respectively, as of Friday, as per Worldometers tally.
More than 2.8 billion doses have been administered across 179 countries, according to data collected by Bloomberg. The latest rate was roughly 42.6 million doses a day.
The US has logged 33,590,429 cases and 603,178 deaths to date, according to the university data. The death toll in the United States is the highest in the world.
India's Covid-19 tally surpassed 30 million while the death toll topped 393,338 on Thursday, said the federal health ministry.
As many as 51,248 new cases and 965 deaths were registered across the country in the past 24 hours till Wednesday morning.
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