According to The Indian Express, there is tentative agreement among the country’s main technical advisory bodies on Covid-19 vaccination that the third-booster-dosage when given, should be of a vaccine based on a different platform than the first two doses.
The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), the apex organisation that provides vaccine advice to the government after a technical evaluation of scientific data on immunisation policies and programmes, is still reviewing the need for boosters, according to senior government sources.
According to the sources, there is consensus within the body that a beneficiary who has received an inactivated-whole virus or adenoviral vector vaccination should receive a third dosage of a vaccine based on a different platform.
Covaxin from Bharat Biotech is an inactivated virus vaccine, whereas Covishield (Oxford-AstraZeneca) from Serum Institute and the Russian-made Sputnik V are adenovirus-based vaccines.
‘There is some clarification that if a recipient receives a further dose, it cannot be the same vaccine, at least in the case of dormant whole virus or adenovirus vector Covid-19 vaccines. A recipient cannot take three doses of Covishield or Covaxin, according to early consensus,’ a senior official said.
According to sources, this also indicates that the third dose for someone who has had two doses of Covishield cannot be Covaxin, and vice versa. The same could be said with Sputnik V.
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