Gap between second dose & booster is likely to be'9-12 months'

|HT|

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India's plan to roll out a third dose of vaccine against Covid, reports claimed that the gap between the second dose and this third dose is likely to be nine to 12 months. The nitty-gritty of the gaps for the vaccines currently being used in India's inoculation programme – Covishield and Covaxin – is being worked out, and a final decision over this will be taken soon, the report said, quoting sources. As announced by PM Modi, the third dose, which is being called the precaution dose will be administered to frontline workers and senior citizens with comorbidities starting from January 10. A majority of this group of the population received both doses in the first half of 2021 as they were the priority groups of India's vaccination programme that started on January 16, 2021. It's already been nine months since their last dose for frontline workers and senior citizens (with comorbidities) who have received both the doses of their vaccines by March-April. "The gap between the second and the precautionary dose of Covid vaccine is likely to be nine to 12 months with the immunisation division and the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) discussing on these lines," the report said.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)