Amidst questions about effectiveness of the two Covid-19 vaccines currently administered to people in the State, the Health Director on Saturday cleared the confusion.“Both Covishield and Covaxin are effective and safe.
Both have potential to protect the body from coronavirus infection by developing antibody. Therefore, there should be no doubt over effectiveness of both the vaccines,” said Health & Family Welfare Director Bijay Panigrahi. He told reporters that the vaccines would be best effective only after a person is administered two doses.“A beneficiary can get the results after getting administered two doses of any (Covishield or Covaxin) vaccine in a prescribed period of gap.
The antibody will be developed after two weeks of the second dose of the jab,” Panigrahi said. So far, 55,50,380 doses of vaccines have been given to the beneficiaries in the State.
The vaccination programme has been suspended for Saturday and Sunday due to the weekend shutdown in all urban areas, he said. Ruling out the reports of closure of vaccination centres due to shortage of doses, Panigrahi said the massive inoculation drive is being carried out five days a week.
Currently, the State has 1 lakh Covishield and 3.7 lakh Covaxin vaccines in stock. The Centre would send additional 1 lakh Covishield in a day. “After receiving 1 lkah Covishield, the State will have 2 lakh Covishields, which will be exhausted in two days. However, we are ensuring that people get jabs to be protected from the virus,” he added.