Covishield Dose Gap: Centre To Tweak CoWIN Norms; Details Here

Class IV staffer Biranchi Nayak receives the first Covid-19 vaccine at Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar

New Delhi: The Centre is going to make changes in the CoWIN app to increase the minimum period between the 1st and 2nd doses for Covishield vaccine from 42 days (6 weeks) to 84 days (12 weeks).

The changes will be effective from midnight of May 14 (Friday).

This was announced in a notification by the Health & Family Welfare Ministry to Collectors, Municipal Commissioners and CDMPHOs across the country on Friday.

The changes would imply:

1. Further online or on-site appointments will not be possible if the period after the 1st dose date for a beneficiary is less than 84 days (12 weeks).
2. Already booked online appointments for the 2nd dose are not being cancelled by CoWIN. Beneficiaries may be advised through suitable IEC that they should reschedule their appointments. However, if a pre-booked beneficiary chooses to take the 2nd dose of vaccine even if the period for him/her is less than 84 days, the CoWIN system will allow vaccination of such a person.

The notification further said that in the current scenario, the load of 2nd dose of Covishield-due beneficiaries at the district level will be minimal. Hence priority shall be given to vaccinate 1st dose Covishield beneficiaries, i.e. healthcare workers (HCW), frontline workers (FLW) and those 45 years old and above.

The notification came a day after the government on Thursday accepted the Covid-19 Working Group’s recommendation for extending the gap between the two doses of the Covishield vaccine from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks.