Study to understand the efficacy of mixing two COVID-19 vaccines to begin in a month

Over the last few months, millions of Indians have been vaccinated for coronavirus (COVID-19). The country currently has two vaccines, Covishield from the Serum Institute of India and Covaxin from Bharat Biotech; and till date the vaccines have not been mixed for administration.

However, as per reports, officials have planned on testing the effectiveness of the mixed vaccines and also the single dose of Covishield. The process for the same will begin soon and a new strategy will be planned for the same. It is said that the test of mixing two different vaccines will start in a month's time and is expected to end in a period of 75 days.

Data will be recorded on a new App, linked to CoWin, which will be further used for analysis and also reporting adverse events. Moreover, people will also be able to express their concerns once the vaccine is administered. Earlier this year, a few citizens in India were given two different vaccines accidentally, but no concerns were said to be reported from the Centre. However, experts called for detailed research regarding the same and also to understand the efficacy.

Meanwhile, the authorities have also planned on understanding the effect of administering only a single dose of covishield, which was earlier said to be efficient during the launch of the vaccine. However, if proven to be beneficial, this will help in vaccination a large amount of population in India. On the other hand, additional checks will also include increased gap between two doses of covishield too. Meanwhile, National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI)'s chairman of COVID-19 working group, NK Arora, believes that the single dose of covishield would be sufficient to provide immunity to the people.

Both these strategies have been planned keeping the current target of vaccination in mind. As per records, the government aims to administer over one crore vaccines by mid of July 2021.

On the other hand, Russia's COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik, will be administered in India from July 2021. This will be administered as single dose, and the department has planned to procure over 30 crore doses per month.