Hyderabad: The recommendations of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) to widen the gap between two doses of Covishield and a wait of at least six months for individuals who have just recovered Covid-19, can help to carry out vaccine administration effectively, provide breathing space to the state government for improving vaccine supply and can improve vaccine efficiency.
The NTAGI recommendations are in line with the vaccine advice of the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and other European countries already implementing a 12 to 16 week gap for the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine.
The 12-week more dose gap for Covishield may also provide better protection for individuals, as a study by Oxford researchers, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), showed that the vaccine’s effectiveness improved to 82.4 percent. The gap would also enable health authorities to protect more people by administering the first dose of the vaccine.
‘The study found that vaccine efficacy reached 82.4 percent with a dose interval of 12 weeks or longer. If the two doses were given less than six weeks apart, the efficacy was only 54.9 percent, ” the BMJ article referred to the study in February 2021.
Another UK study, published in The Lancet in March, said a 12-week gap between doses would have a vaccine efficacy of 81.3 per cent, while a shorter maintenance of six weeks or less would have a vaccine efficacy of 51 percent offers. Based on these studies, Spain decided to widen the gap between the first and second doses of AstraZeneca vaccine by 16 weeks.
This is the second time that NTAGI has recommended a change in the vaccine dose in the country. That was in March 2021 when the Ministry of Health of the Union decided to change from 18 days to six to eight weeks for better results.
Source: Telangana Today