The Centre in its official statement announced today that vaccines can be taken by covid recovered people after a period of 3 months. If any person contracts the virus after getting administered with the first dose, they should wait for 3 months before taking the second dose of the vaccine, it added.
Previously, there was no such mandatory time duration to be maintained between the 2 doses in these cases, though individual practitioners suggested a gap of 2 to 4 weeks based on the patient’s health condition.
The latest norms become a part of the NEGVAC (National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration)’s recommendations for battling covid-19. The body is headed by DR VK Paul, a member of NITI Aayog. The rules have also been approved by the Union Health Ministry.
According to the list of guidelines formulated by the body’s experts, lactating women can also take the vaccine after there were rounds of debate between people due to no information on the same.
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Less than a week back, the Centre had increased the gap between 2 doses of Covishield vaccine. Giving the reason that the efficacy of the vaccine will go up, the government expanded the gap from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks.
“Based on available real-life evidence, particularly from the United Kingdom, the COVID-19 Working Group has agreed to increase dosing interval between two doses of Covishield to 12-16 weeks. No change in intervals for Covaxin was recommended,” the Centre said in its statement.
However, the fresh change has triggered criticism from Congress that drew attention to the acute shortage of vaccines in India, given this extension is the second in 3 months.
As for Pfizer, currently rolled out in the US, Canada, UK, Singapore, UAE and many other countries, the second dose is to be taken after 3 weeks from the first dose administration.
India’s expansion of this time duration is raising questions if the government is trying to cover up the shortage of vaccines by throwing the trap of “enhanced efficacy”. The greater question is whether or not the vaccine will work effectively after the long gap.
The nation registered 2.67 lakh new infections today, taking up the total tally to 2.54 crore cases and over 2.83 fatalities.
India broke the US’s record (4,475) of the highest number of deaths in a single day after it logged 4,529 deaths within the last 24 hours.
Despite the reduction in new daily cases, the country is nowhere in a condition to be termed safe.
