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    Covishield dose gap increased to 12-16 weeks

    The Centre on Thursday approved extending the gap between the two doses of the Covishield vaccine to 12-16 weeks following a recommendation from a government panel, and said it is a “science-based decision” taken with confidence that there will be no extra risk.

    Covishield dose gap increased to 12-16 weeks
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    New Delhi

    However, the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) has suggested no change for the dosage interval for Covaxin, the Union health ministry said. “Based on the available real-life evidences, particularly from the UK, the COVID-19 Working Group agreed for increasing the dosing interval to 12-16 weeks between two doses of Covishield vaccine. No change in interval of Covaxin vaccine doses was recommended,” the ministry said.

    The present gap between two doses of Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, is 6-8 weeks. The Central government’s move comes amid reports from several states about shortage of COVID-19 vaccines. Some states and UTs have also reported that they had to suspend its vaccination drive for 18-44 years in view of the scarcity.

    Asserting that it has been a “science based decision” taken based on the recommendations of the NTAGI, V K Paul, member (Health) NITI Aayog said as per studies, initially the dosage interval between two doses of covishield was 4 to 6 weeks but then as more data became available secondary analysis showed increasing the dosage interval to 4 to 8 weeks can have some “advantage.” They had seen that the UK by that time had already extended it to 12 weeks and WHO also had said the same, but many nations had not changed the dosage pattern, Paul noted. At that time our science based technical committee anchored by ICMR along with DBT by looking at the available data felt breakthrough infections may increase if the gap is increased beyond eight weeks, Paul said.

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