Vaccine To Work After 14 Days Of 2nd Shot, No Option To Choose Between Covishield & Covaxin: Govt

Bhubaneswar: The Health Ministry on Tuesday announced that there will be no option for the 3 crore frontline workers to choose which of the two vaccines to take. The first phase of COVID-19 vaccination drive will begin on Saturday. 

“At many places in the world, more than one vaccine are being administered, but presently, in no country, vaccine recipients have the option of choosing the shot,” said Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan while addressing a press conference.

The two approved vaccines in India are Oxford’s Covishield being manufactured by Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.

The Minister assured that both vaccines are safe and effective. He also informed that the two doses will be administered in a gap of 28 days and the effectiveness will begin 14 days after the 2nd dose.

As many as 54.72 lakh doses of the entire stock of COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered to the respective state centres. Total 1.1 crore doses of Covishield and 55 lakh doses of Covaxin will be received by January 14.

So far, one crore officials have registered on the CO-Win app. The vaccines will be administered to 1 crore health care workers, two crore frontline workers and 27 crore citizens over the age of 50 and people with co-morbidities in the first phase.