Amid rising number of Covid cases in the country, the Government has approved Biological E's Corbevax as a precautionary dose for those above 18 years fully vaccinated with either Covishield or Covaxin. This provision would be available from August 12.
This is the first time that a booster dose that is different from the one used for primary vaccination against Covid has been allowed in the country. In a letter to the States, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that, “based on scientific evidence, global practices and the recommendations of domain knowledge experts, it has now been decided to further redefine the precaution dose administration under Covid-19 vaccination programme.
“Corbevax will be available as a precaution dose after completion of 6 months or 26 weeks from the date of administration of the second dose of either Covaxin or Covishield vaccines for populations above 18 years.” He further said that, “this enables use of Corbevax as a heterologous Covid-19 vaccine for precaution dose administration in this age group. “There will be no change in existing guidelines for homologous precaution dose administration of Covaxin and Covishield vaccine. “In addition to the existing homologous precaution dose, the option of a heterologous precaution dose with Corbevax would be available to all persons above 18 years of age,” said the Health Secretary.
All necessary changes in regard to the administration of heterologous precaution dose using Corbevax, to those who are eligible and due for precaution dose have been made on the Co-WIN portal, informed the senior official.
The Union Health Ministry's approval is based on the recommendations made recently by the COVID-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI).
Under India's Covid-19 vaccination program, 2 billion doses have been administered so far. “About 97 per cent of the 12+ age population of the country has been covered with at least one dose and about 89% of the 12+ age population has been covered with both doses.
“Considerable progress is also being made under “Covid Vaccination Amrit Mahotsav” (from 15th July, 2022 to 30th September, 2022), to cover eligible beneficiaries above 18 years with precaution dose,” said Rajesh Bhushan in letter.