Colombo: A study conducted by a university in Sri Lanka found that people over 60 years of age who took the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine covishield But its effect fell at 16 weeks while on the other hand, it showed a good effect on the younger population during the same period.
The vaccine is produced by the University of Oxford and the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company AstraZeneca. Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, has tied up with Oxford University and AstraZeneca to manufacture Covishield.
Professor Neelika Malvige, from the Department of Immunology and Molecular Sciences, Sri Jayawardenepura University, said in a tweet, “Our study suggests that the efficacy of the vaccine dropped at 16 weeks after the first dose in elderly individuals. During this, antibodies also ended in them. However, the vaccine showed a good effect on people below 60 years of age. Antibodies were still present in them after 16 weeks.
He said that our research about the effect of the first dose of the Covishield vaccine has been published in NatureComms.
