'To cover up vaccine shortage?': Congress raises alarm over extension in COVISHIELD doses

With the Union Government increasing the gap between two doses of Serum Institute of India's (SII) COVISHIELD, the Opposition Congress targetted the Centre on Thursday, accusing it of creating 'confusion'. Congress' General Secretary KC Venugopal, in an attack aimed at the Centre, questioned if the government was 'covering up' the vaccine shortage across the country by increasing the duration between the two doses of COVISHIELD. 

This comes after the Health Ministry on Thursday accepted the recommendation by the COVID Working Group of extension of the gap between the first and the second doses of COVISHIELD vaccine to 12-16 weeks from the existing duration of 6-8 weeks. Notably, no change has been proposed in the gap between the first and second dose of the COVAXIN.  This is also the third time that the Centre is revising the gap between two COVISHIELD doses with the previous change being proposed in March this year when the government had changed the interval from 4--6 weeks to 4-8 weeks, based on 'emerging scientific evidence'.

Noting the same, Venugopal also questioned if there is a 'logical explanation' or any 'expert backing' to the same. Commenting on the same, Congress' Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh also raised suspicion and linked the recommendations to the insufficient stock of vaccine doses. Of the 17,60,93,611 vaccine doses administered till date, Covishield constitutes 15,86,26,361 doses and Covaxin constitutes 1,74,67,250 doses.

The Serum Institute of India (SII), which manufactures COVISHIELD, is yet to make a statement on the same. Significantly, as per the World Health Organization (WHO) longer dose intervals within the 8 to 12 weeks range are 'associated with greater vaccine efficacy.' The UK government, in February this year, had also extended the second dose up to 12 weeks to 'use the supplies to protect the largest possible number of people'. 

Covishield - a Recombinant Chimpanzee Adenovirus vector vaccine - has an efficacy of 70.42%, with interim safety and immunogenicity data of Phase-II/III trials submitted to the SEC. While Covaxin - a Whole Virion Inactivated Corona Virus Vaccine - 22,500 participants vaccinated in Phase-III trials and was found to be safe as per the data available to date. 

Central panel recommends increasing Covishield interval

The National Immunization Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) has recommended deferring vaccination of those testing positive for COVID-19 by at least six months after recovery. The panel has also stated that pregnant women may be offered a choice to take any COVID-19 vaccine and that lactating women were eligible for jabs any time after delivery. These decisions come as the US has announced its plans to lift its export ban on vaccine materials to produce Covishield, which is yet to fructify. Serum Institute of India (SII) has announced that it will ramp up its manufacturing capacity to 10 crore doses per month by August. On the other hand, the Centre has provided a mega boost to the production of Bharat Biotech-ICMR's COVAXIN and has projected to produce 10 crore dozes of the vaccine per month by September this year.