No Mix and Match for Precautionary Doses, Children to be Administered only “Covaxin”
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 27: Two days after the prime minister Narendra Modi’s announcements, the union health ministry on Monday issued a fresh set of guidelines on the registration and inoculation drive that will cover children between 15 and 18 years of age, besides administration of ‘precaution doses’ for healthcare and frontline workers and those above 60 years of age with comorbidities.
The Union health ministry said prioritisation and sequencing of the precaution dose would be based on the completion of nine months or 39 weeks from the date of administration of the second dose. There would be no mix-and-match of vaccines for the crucial third dose to be given in view of the Omicron variant that is rapidly spreading in the country, senior health ministry sources said.
The booster doses, or “precaution dose as the minister has named it, would be a third dose of the same vaccine a person has taken — be it Covishield or Covaxin. The key aspect would be gap — the third dose will be administered 9-12 months after the second dose to health and frontline workers and senior citizens with co-morbidities, sources said.
India will also start administering Covid-19 vaccines to children in the age group of 15-18 years from January 3. The guidelines issued on Monday by the centre for this vaccination drive, outlined the type of vaccine that can be used as well as the methods of booking slots to get jabbed. The health ministry guidelines state that only Covaxin will be administered to children in the age group of 15-18 years.
The health ministry has said all those who are 15 years or more will be able to register on Co-WIN. The health ministry has said beneficiaries can self-register online through an existing account on Co-WIN. They can also register by creating a new account through a unique mobile number. This option at present is available only for citizens who are eligible for vaccination.
Therefore, children can book their vaccination slots using their parents’ existing Co-WIN accounts from January 1.
Guidelines state that beneficiaries can also be registered onsite by the verifier/vaccinator in facilitated registration mode. Further, appointments can be booked online or onsite (that is children can walk in to get jabbed). All beneficiaries irrespective of their income status are entitled to get jabbed for free at government vaccination centres. However, those who visit private hospitals or vaccination centres have to pay the requisite fees.
Experts met on Monday to chalk out the rollout process of the precautionary doses, which will be administered starting January 10. There has been considerable debate worldwide over whether mixing vaccines or sticking to the same vaccine for the third dose offers better protection. While specific data from both are yet to come in for booster doses, mixing vaccines for the first and second shots is seen to have triggered a more robust immune response.
A key study from the UK into mixing COVID-19 vaccines has found that people had a better immune response when they received a first dose of AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech shots followed by Moderna nine weeks later, according to the results on Monday.
“We found a really good immune response across the board…, in fact, higher than the threshold set by Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine two doses,” media reports quoting experts said. Recent studies at UK’s Oxford University showed that a third dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine — which is known in India as Covishield and accounts for nearly 90 per cent of doses administered in the country — significantly boosted neutralizing antibodies against Omicron.
The study also showed that immunity from the two doses that are currently being administered, starts waning after three months. In view of this, a section of doctors and the Indian Medical Association had repeatedly asked the government to provide additional doses to front-line and health workers and people with weak or compromised immunity.
Meanwhile, in the wake of suggestions from various quarters to defer the elections to several state assemblies due early 2022, top officials of the Election Commission on Monday met Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan to review the pandemic situation in the poll-bound states. “The commission would be proceeding to Lucknow on Tuesday afternoon for a scheduled poll preparedness review meeting there and return on 30th afternoon,” an EC official said.
The Health Secretary had on December 23 directed the poll-bound states to “exponentially ramp up vaccination” – especially in the “low coverage districts” to protect the vulnerable population. Bhushan, during the review meeting with all states, also raised a red flag that pockets with low vaccination coverage may be more vulnerable to the new Omicron variant, and that district administrations have to pay special attention to ramp up vaccination in these pockets. Elections are expected in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur early next year.
The Commission is currently visiting all poll-bound states ahead of the scheduled assembly elections. It is customary for the Commission to visit poll-bound states ahead of announcing their dates. The Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra, and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey and Rajiv Kumar have already visited Punjab, Goa and Uttarakhand and are scheduled to visit, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur next.
Chandra, during his review visit to Goa said the Election Commission is ready to hold the elections in Goa (and by extension, the other states going to polls around the same time), despite the looming threat of another wave of Coronavirus pandemic, but emphasised that local election officials have been empowered to ensure strict adherence to Covid protocols during campaigning, and that the polling itself would also be held with adequate precautions.
The current term of the legislative assemblies of Goa, Manipur, Punjab and Uttarakhand are coming to an end in March 2022, while the term of the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly is scheduled to end in May.
