NEW DELHI, May 13: The Centre on Thursday approved extending the gap between the two doses of the Covishield vaccine from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks following a recommendation from a government panel, the Union Health Ministry said.
However, the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation has suggested no change for the dosage interval for Covaxin.
The present gap between two doses of Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, is 6-8 weeks.
This is the second time that the interval between the two doses of Covishield has been increased. In March, the Union Health Ministry had asked states and UTs to increase the gap from 28 days to 6-8 weeks.
“The recommendation of the COVID-19 Working Group was accepted by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19, headed by Dr VK Paul,” the ministry said.
The Working Group consists of Dr NK Arora, Director, INCLEN Trust, Dr Rakesh Agarwal, Dean, GIPMER, Puducherry; Dr Gagandeep Kang, CMC, Vellore; Dr Naveen Khanna, JNU, New Delhi; Dr Amulya Panda, Director, National Institute of Immunology, and Dr VG Somani, Drugs Controller General of India. (PTI)
