Bhubaneswar: The Centre today made it clear that for precaution or booster dose the same vaccine will be administered as the third dose and no mix and match will be allowed.
This means that those who have received Covishield as their first and second dose will receive Covishield as their third dose.
“Precautionary Covid vaccine dose will be the same vaccine as has been given to them previously as primary dose. Those who have received Covaxin as the primary dose will receive the same as precautionary dose, and those who received Covishield as the primary dose will receive Covishield now,” said Dr VK Paul, Member-Health, NITI Aayog, at a press briefing of the Health Ministry today in New Delhi.
On the mixing approach of Covid vaccines for precautionary doses, Dr Paul said that it will be discussed further as more research on the subject is underway.
Dr Paul added that the national positivity rate, which was 1.1 percent on December 30, currently stands at 5 percent, while the R-value stands at 2.69.
On a possible third Covid wave hitting the country, he said that India is facing an exponential rise in Covid cases which is largely being driven by the new Covid variant Omicron particularly in the western part of the nation and in the larger cities.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 25 announced that healthcare and frontline workers and senior citizens with comorbidities will be eligible for precaution doses.
Administration of booster doses will start in the country from January 10.
