COVID recovered may take coronavirus vaccine after six months
New Delhi : People who had tested positive for coronavirus and have recovered completely, should not go for vaccination for six months, a government panel recommended, according to sources quoted by Press Trust of India.
The same panel has suggested a gap of 12-16 weeks in the two dosage of Covishield, PTI said today. No change has been suggested for the dosage interval of Covaxin. The Centre approved the recommendations given by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) that held a meeting recently.
According to the panel, those who tested positive for coronavirus after taking first dose should wait for four to eight weeks for the second dose after getting recovered.
Also, COVID-19 patients who have been given monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma can defer vaccination for three months from the day they are out of hospital, the recommendations say.
Those with any other serious illness requiring hospitalisation or ICU care should also wait for four to eight weeks before getting the next vaccine.
According to the Union Health Ministry's current protocol, the vaccine is to be taken four to eight weeks after recovery from a Covid infection and pregnant and lactating women are not to be administered the shots.
No changes have been suggested for Covaxin by the working group. It remains at 4-6 weeks.
The decision to increase the time gap comes at a time when states are complaining of shortage of vaccines. With this the opposition has slammed Centre of playing with people's life to hide their inability to provide dosage of vaccines.
