(Video) Rajya Sabha TV (RSTV) The Big Picture: New advisory for Covishield jabs

Topic: New advisory for Covishield jabs

Guest:

Prof. N K Ganguly, (Former Director General, ICMR)
Prof. Y.K. Gupta, (Member, NEGVAC)

Topic Description:

The government on Thursday issued new guidelines for administering the Covishield vaccine. The interval between two doses of the vaccine has been extended further to 12-16 weeks. It was earlier 6-8 weeks.

The Union Health Ministry said that the decision was based on the recommendation of the seven-member Covid-19 Working Group. States have been conveyed the revised time frame and necessary changes are being carried out in the Co-Win platform.

Covishield - – that has been developed by Astrazeneca in collaboration with Oxford University, and is being produced by the Serum Institute of India - accounts for 90 per cent of the 17.8 crore vaccine doses administered in the country so far.

India’s decision comes almost three months after the UK took a decision to increase the gap to 12 weeks.

However, there has been no change in the interval between two doses of Covaxin – our indigenous vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech.