Covishield & Covaxin to be used for booster dose; people to get same vaccine as 1st 2 jabs

In a big development ahead of the booster dose rollout phase, the Union Health Ministry announced that the precautionary dose will be of the same vaccine as the first two jabs. Briefing the media on Wednesday, NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr. VK Paul stated that those who have been administered Covishield and Covaxin will receive the third dose of the same vaccine. As there was no clarity on the approval of Sputnik V, it implies that those who have taken this vaccine will have to wait longer for the booster dose. 

NITI Aayog's Dr.VK Paul remarked, "The precautionary vaccine dose that will be given to healthcare workers, frontline workers and individuals 60 years and above with comorbidities will be the same vaccine that has been given to them previously. Those who have received Covaxin will receive Covaxin, those who have received the primary doses of Covishield will receive Covishield. All arrangements are on track to start this process."

Amid the growing spread of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus, healthcare and frontline workers, and persons aged above 60 having co-morbidities are eligible to get the 'precautionary dose' of the vaccine from January 10 onwards. Most importantly, the 'precaution dose' can be taken only after 9 months; 39 weeks from the date of the administration of the second dose. While the CoWIN system will send an SMS to the beneficiaries when their dose becomes due, the latter can also register themselves via online and offline mode. 

COVID-19 vaccination in India

The country's vaccine drive against COVID-19 commenced on 16th January, with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase. This was opened up to frontline workers on 2nd February while those aged above 60 and above 45 with co-morbidities became eligible for vaccination from March 1. While everyone aged above 45 could get vaccinated from April 1, all adults were added to the vaccination coverage category on May 1. In a huge achievement, India completed administering one crore coronavirus vaccine doses on October 21. 

From January 3, the vaccination of children aged between 15 and 18 has commenced and India has already crossed the one crore dose mark in this category. Apart from Covishield and Covaxin, the Drugs Controller General of India has approved Sputnik V, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccine, Zydus Cadila's ZyCoV-D, Corbevax and Covovax. A total of 86,78,78,787 citizens have been inoculated whereas 61,93,77,332 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too.