The central government has asked the state and UT governments to increase the gap between two doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield vaccine from 28 days to six-eight weeks for better results.
The centre in a letter to the states/ UT urged to increase the gap between the two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from the practiced interval of 4-6 weeks to 6-8 weeks.
The revision of the gap between the two doses applies only to Covishield, which is being manufactured by Serum Institute of India and not to Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.
Why has the centre asked the states to increase the gap between two doses of Covishield vaccine?
According to the central government, the immunity is enhanced if the second dose is administered after a gap of 6-8 weeks instead of the current gap of 28 days. The decision was taken based on the recommendation of two expert panels.
The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) and National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) had revisited the interval between two doses of specific COVID-19 vaccine- Covishield during their 20th meeting.
During the meeting, the recommendation to increase the gap between the first and the second dose of the vaccine was put forward.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan informed through a letter that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has accepted the recommendations of NTAGI and NEGVAC, following which the Centre advised the states and UTs to administer the dose after an interval of 4-8 weeks.
The Union Health Secretary further urged the States/ UTs to instruct the concerned officials to undertake necessary steps to ensure that the message is disseminated widely to the programme managers, vaccinators and recipients of the Covisheild vaccine.
The centre said that the protection is enhanced if the second dose of Covishield is administered between 6-8 weeks but not later than a period of 8 weeks.
What does WHO recommend?
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE) had recently laid its observations that the two-dose efficacy and immunogenicity increases with a longer interval between doses and recommended an interval of 8 to 12 weeks between the two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
However, it also said that if the second dose was administered less than 4 weeks after the first, then the dose does not need to be repeated.
Background
India had begun its second round of vaccinations for people aged above 60 years and those above 45 years with co-morbidities on March 1, 2021. Over 4.5 crore vaccine doses have already been administered across the country since January 2021.
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