New Delhi: The government has accepted the COVID-19 Working Group's recommendation for extending the gap between the two doses of the Covishield vaccine from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks, the Union health ministry said, while announcing the extension on Thursday.
However, no change has been suggested for the dosage interval for Covaxin, it said.
The present gap between two doses of Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, is 6-8 weeks.
The health ministry has now advised states and union territories to ensure a second dose of Covishield to beneficiaries within this stipulated time interval of 12-16 weeks after the first dose.
Meanwhile, a political word war has been escalated soon after the government announced the changes.
To know more about the facts, ETV Bharat spoke to Dr Girdhar Gyani, Director-General of the Association of Health Care Providers India. According to him, there is nothing wrong with the changes made by the government.
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"The government has made changes as per scientific protocol. So, it should not be politicised. In the first, people above 45 have been vaccinated. So, the gap in the duration will help them to administer the second dose of the vaccine", he said.
Mr Gyani further noted that the production of the vaccine would gradually improve in the next 1-2 months. Therefore, it will be easy for the government to vaccinate the age group of 18 above.
Since the beginning of Phase III of the vaccination drive in India, more than 42 lakh beneficiaries of age group 18-44 have been given the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.
"A total of 3,28,216 beneficiaries of the age group 18-44 years received their first dose of COVID vaccine in the last 24 hours and cumulatively 42,58,756 across 32 States/UTs since the start of phase-3 of vaccination drive," said the Ministry's release.
According to the release, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has also exceeded 18 crores.
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