Covishield interval extended on scientific evidence: Central panel chief

The decision regarding enhancing interval between two doses of Covishield was based on scientific evidence and taken in a transparent manner NTAGI Chair N K Arora said on TuesdayThere was no dissenting voice among the members of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization NTAGI he said according to a tweet by the Union Health MinistryThe government had on May 13 said it has accepted the Covid19 Working Groups recommendation and extended the gap between the two doses of the Covishield vaccine from 68 weeks to 1216 weeksBased on the available reallife evidence particularly from the UK the Covid19 Working Group agreed for increasing the dosing interval to 1216 weeks between two doses of Covishield vaccine No change in the interval of Covaxin vaccine doses was recommended the ministry had said in a statementThe recommendation of the Covid19 Working Group was accepted by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid19 NEGVAC headed by Dr V K Paul Member Health Niti Aayog in its meeting on May 12 2021 the ministry saidIt has accepted this recommendation of the Covid19 Working Group of extension of the gap between the first and second doses of Covishield to 1216 weeks the health ministry addedExplaining the reason behind the extension VK Paul had said at a press conference that it was a sciencebased decision taken on the recommendations of the NTAGIHe said as per studies initially the interval between two doses of Covishield was four to six weeks but then as more data became available secondary analysis showed increasing the dosage interval to 4 to 8 weeks can have some advantageVK Paul said the UK by that time had already extended it to 12 weeks and WHO also had said the same but many nations still did not change the dosage patternAt that time our sciencebased technical committee anchored by ICMR along with DBT by looking at the available data felt breakthrough infections may increase if the gap is increased to 12 weeksSo in good faith based on their capability without any pressures they increased the dosage interval to 4 to 8 weeks The issue was reviewed periodically again and againNow based on the available reallife evidence particularly from the UK the decision to extend it from 68 weeks to 1216 weeks has been taken with confidence that there will not be an extra risk This is a dynamic decision and part of periodic review VK Paul had saidUnderlining that NTAGI is a standing committee that was constituted much before Covid19 had emerged and works on immunization for children VK Paul had said It looks at scientific data and we must respect the decision of this institutionThey make independent decisions Have faith in our scientific processes NTGAI is a group of individuals of high integrityThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever