Latvia records first case of vaccine failing to provide protection against Covid-19

RIGA - Latvia has recorded the first case where a vaccine against Covid-19 has failed to provide protection against a mutated coronavirus variant, the Panorama evening news program of Latvian Television (LTV) reported Saturday. 

A patient in Latvia has turned out to be infected with a coronavirus variant that is known for its ability to defy antibodies. 

Janis Klovins, head of the Scientific Council of the Latvian Biomedical Studies and Research Center, told LTV that a patient has been diagnosed with a mutated virus that cannot be beaten by the existing Covid-19 vaccine. 

Had the person been infected with an ordinary coronavirus variant he would not have fallen ill or would not have become so severely ill. 

The vaccine-evading mutation has been found in four out of more than 2,000 virus samples sequenced by Latvian scientists, which means that it is still relatively rare. 

Already at the start of the pandemic, experts voiced concerns that as a result mutation, a virus variant can emerge that could resist the vaccine.

That means that vaccine producers will probably have to adjust and improve the existing vaccines or develop new ones that would work against the mutated virus variants, LTV said.