Centre likely to reduce gap between two doses of Covishield: Report

The Centre is considering to reduce the gap between two doses of Covishield, reported ANI quoting government sources.

At present, the gap between two doses is 84 days. It is the third time that the gap is being reviewed, government sources said on Thursday. The suggestion will be further discussed in National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) .

In January, when Indian started its vaccination programme, the recommended dose gap for Serum Institute of India’s Covishield, was four to six weeks. It was later increased to six to eight weeks.

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In May, when India was battling the deadly second wave of COVID-19, the government revised the dose gap to 12 to 16 weeks citing “real life evidence from the UK”. The gap for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin remained the same.

The government panel, had in May, said studies had revealed that the longer the gap, the more antibodies were produced.

Serum Institute of India (SII) has informed the Centre that it will be able to supply around 20 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine Covishield in September itself to Government to India and private hospitals, official sources said. The Pune-based SII has already supplied 12 crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in August, they said.

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The vaccine is made from a weakened version of a common cold virus (known as an adenovirus) from chimpanzees. It has been modified to look more like coronavirus – although it can’t cause illness.

India has currently approved six COVID vaccine, including Covaxin, Pfizer, Sputnik, Zydus and Moderna.

India’s total tally of COVID-19 cases has increased to 3,25,58,530, while the active cases increased to 3,33,725, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.

The death toll climbed to 4,36,365 with 607 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The active cases comprise 1.03 per cent of the total infections while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.63 per cent, the ministry said.

An increase of 11,398 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.