NEW DELHI: It may take longer to revise gap between the second covid vaccine dose and precaution dose as members of the government’s technical expert panel on immunisation are yet to reach a consensus on the matter, according to people familiar with the matter.
“The matter is being discussed but for anything to be decided conclusively, a consensus has to be reached. There are voices in favour but also some that feel the gap is just fine at the moment. The discussion should continue on this in the next meeting,” said a person aware of the matter, requesting not to be named.
Serum Institute of India’s chief executive officer, Adar Poonawalla, had been advocating for reducing the gap to 6 months for quite some time.
Precaution dose was opened under the national Covid immunisation programme on January 10 for the high-risk group, before the government took a stand on expanding it for all adults from April 10.
The Centre clarified that the precaution doses will be homologous, which means that if you have received the Covishield vaccine for your first and second doses, your third dose will also be of Covishield and similarly if your first two doses were of Covaxin, the booster shot will also be the same.
The two vaccines that are the mainstay of national Covid immunisation programme are Covaxin and Covishield. Bharat Biotech developed Covaxin in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research, and Serum Institute of India locally manufactured Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine under the brand name Covishield.
The government has not yet allowed mixing and matching of precaution dose as several trials are currently going on in the country to know the effect of existing vaccines as boosters.
Also, no fresh registration is required for the precautionary dose as all due beneficiaries are already registered on the Co-Win portal.
