As India gears up to administer the precautionary or third dose of COVID-19 vaccine to healthcare and frontline workers as well as senior citizens from January 10, the Union Health Ministry has stated that there will be no mix-and-match of vaccines for the third dose.

Dr VK Paul, head of Indias COVID task force, said that the third dose will be the same as the first two doses administered to a person. The precautionary dose will be administered nine months, or 39 weeks, from the date of administration of the second dose.

The Union Health Ministry also reported that the country has registered over 6.3 times rise in COVID-19 cases over the past eight days. The case positivity has risen from 0.79% on December 29, 2021 to 5.03% as of January 5, 2022… (ET Healthworld, January 5, 2022)