In recent developments, VK Paul, member-health of the Niti Aayog, informed that a mix and match of vaccines for the coronavirus is unlikely to happen in India anytime soon.
This comes after preliminary results from a trial in the UK, where a combination of the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines were given, generating a high immune response against the SARS-COV-2 virus.
However, Paul stated that such a combination of Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin was not being considered, even though it is theoretically possible.
On the other hand, days after the government decided to increase the interval between two doses of Covishield to 12-18 weeks, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) head Dr Balram Bhargava stated that immunity post the first shot was found to be quite strong.
Meanwhile, the four-week gap for Covaxin is unchanged as the immunity after the initial shot is not as high. Explaining further, he said that making a three-month interval mandatory for Covishield will give the best results. On the other hand, immunity level after the first shot of Covaxin is not as high and this means the second dose should be taken after four weeks to ensure full efficacy, Dr Bhargava added.
Furthermore, the Centre has informed that the World Health Organization (WHO) is yet to reach a consensus on the vaccine passport issue for allowing international travel to those fully vaccinated against the coronavirus infection. Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal further stated that so far there has been no consensus at the level of WHO over this.
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