Coronavirus: Booster vaccine shot will be same as earlier doses, says Centre
In December, PM Modi had announced that a ‘precautionary dose’ would be administered to healthcare workers and senior citizens from January 10.
The Centre on Wednesday said that it will not mix coronavirus vaccines when administering booster doses.
“Precautionary Covid-19 vaccine dose will be the same vaccine as has been given previously,” said NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul at a health ministry briefing, reported ANI. “Those who’ve received Covaxin will receive Covaxin, those who’ve received primary two doses of Covishield will receive Covishield.”
On December 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that a “precautionary dose”, or a booster shot, would be administered to healthcare workers and those over 60 years with co-morbidities from January 10.
However, the government had not clarified if it would allow administering mixing vaccine doses.
At the briefing, Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Balram Bhargava also said that asymptomatic contacts do not need to get tested. This is in line with a the decision proposed by the South African government for its asymptomatic population.
Meanwhile, Joint Health Secretary Lav Agarwal said that India has reported a 6.3 times increase in daily coronavirus cases in the last eight days.
Agarwal also pointed out that the test positivity rate increased from 0.79% on December 29 to 5.03% in the country.
On December 29, India had recorded 7,347 new coronavirus cases. On Wednesday, the number of daily Covid-19 cases had jumped to India recorded 58,097 cases.