Official sources said on Sunday, that around three crore health, frontline workers and around three crore people above 60 with co-morbidities would be eligible in January for the ‘precaution dose’ of the same COVID vaccine, which will be administered after a gap of nine months from the second dose. Any decision on the mixing of doses would be taken later based on the clinical trial results. 

The Prime Minister of India had announced earlier on Saturday that COVID vaccination for children between 15-18 would begin from January 3 and administration of “precaution doses” for health and frontline workers as well as for elderly above 60 with co-morbidities would start from January 10.

COVISHIELD accounted for 89% of the total 141 crore doses administered so far, so an estimated people of one crore who were above 60 with comorbidities would be eligible in January. Children aged 15-to-18 would be given COVAXIN, which was given regulatory approval for emergency use in children above 12 years on Saturday. Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D has also been approved for children above 12 years but is still not a part of the government’s programme.

The government mentioned that adequate doses were available to cater to the additional load. The monthly production of COVAXIN and COVISHIELD is estimated to be around 31 crore doses.4 crore doses of COVAXIN was available in the State inventory and the demand for COVAXIN in the 18-plus category had already ceased in many states. Till Sunday there were 18 crore unutilized doses available with the states.

Source: ET Healthworld