Nothing worrying in Covishield jab gap: Centre eases public fear

New Delhi: The Centre on Friday appealed to the public to refrain from panicking on the need for immediate change in Covishield COVID-19 vaccine dosage interval amid reports saying that it would be better to shorten the gap between the two doses.

Dr V K Paul, Member (Health) at NITI Aayog while addressing a media briefing on COVID-19 asserted that there is a need to balance such concerns in light of the variants in circulation.

He reminded people of the need for considering the risk of virus infection in those who received only one dose when the gap is increased.

But the counterpoint was that more people will then be able to get the first dose, thereby giving a reasonable degree of immunity to more people.

He also added that the debate and discourse regarding this should necessarily be done in the public domain and said that the decision has to be taken by appropriate fora comprising eminent people who are knowledgeable about this.

Paul said that the fora will review the decision based on the pandemic situation in our country, depending on the extent of prevalence of the delta variant and then take a comprehensive view.

He also added that whatever decision taken by our scientific community will be honoured.

He further appealed to the public to respect the decision of the members in the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), who are quite a few people who have been a part of WHO panels and committees and are globally renowned and recognised for their eminence.

Moreover, NTAGI is regarded as a standard when it comes to global and national immunization programmes, he said.

Regarding UK's decision in revising the previous gap, Paul said that it must have adopted the gap after due process and examination of data scientifically.

The UK had earlier kept the gap at 12 weeks, but as per data available to us, we did not consider it safe at that point," he said.