Increase gap between two doses of Covishield to 4-8 weeks: Centre to states

Accepting the recommendations of the expert committee on vaccine administration, the union government on Monday asked the states and union territories to increase the interval between two doses of Covishield --- the Oxford-AstraZencea vaccine produced locally by Serum Institute of India --- to 4-8 weeks.

Keeping the existing scientific evidence in view, it appears that that the protection from coronavirus is enhanced if the second dose of Covishield is administered between 6-8 weeks, the government said.

However, it warned that the second dose of vaccine should not be administered after 8 weeks.

The interval between two doses of Covishield, has