Centre on Monday has written to the states and Union Territories to increase the gap between two doses of Serum Institute of India's locally made Oxford Covid-19 vaccine 'Covishield' to 4-8 weeks now. Earlier, the dosage was being given at an interval of 4-6 weeks.
"Given emerging scientific evidence, the interval between two doses of a specific COVID-19 vaccine i.e. COVISHIELD has been revisited by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization and subsequently by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19," the government stated.
The decision of the revised time interval between two doses applies only to Covishield, and not to Covaxin, the letter clarified. The dose interval revision comes amid reports of possible side-effects of the vaccine and many European countries putting a halt to its use. The government, however, stated that there was "no signal of concern" regarding its use in the country as of now. Scientific data suggests that protection is enhanced when the second dose of Covishield is given between 6-8 weeks, but not later than the designated period of 8 weeks, the letter asserted.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in his letter to the Chief Secretaries of States/UTs has noted that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has accepted the recommendations of NTAGI and NEGVAC and has thereafter advised the States and UTs to ensure the administration of 2nd dose of COVISHIELD to beneficiaries within this stipulated time interval of 4-8 weeks after 1st dose. The Union Health Secretary has urged the States and UTs to instruct the concerned officials accordingly to undertake necessary steps to widely disseminate the message of revised dosing interval amongst programme managers, vaccinators and recipients of COVISHIELD vaccine and ensure adherence to the revised dosing interval.
Ahead of the mega vaccination drive that began on January 16 2021, the drug controller of India had granted emergency use authorisation to 2 covid-19 vaccine candidates - Serum Institute’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s homegrown Covaxin.
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By far, the total vaccination coverage in India has crossed the 4.5-crore mark to date and over 4.50 crore (4,50,65,998) vaccine doses have been inoculated through 7,33,597 sessions, as per the provisional report till Monday 7 am.
Last week, 10 crore doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine - Covishield order was placed by the government with the Serum Institute of India (SII) each costing Rs 157.50, including GST.