How Long Should I Wait Before The Second Dose of COVID Vaccine?
If you have taken your first COVID vaccine shot, you must be wondering what's the ideal waiting period before you take your second shot. There is still a lot of confusion over the interval between the first and second doses of COVID vaccine, Covishield. Earlier, it was said one had to wait for 28 days between the shots. But, now we hear that the interval period (gap) has been extended from four-six weeks to eight weeks. The second dose of Covaxin can be taken four to six weeks after the first dose. However, a delay beyond the eighth week may leave the beneficiary vulnerable.
The vaccine is Serum Institute of India’s version of AZD1222 – Developed by AstraZeneca in collaboration with the University of Oxford.
On the recommendation of two expert groups– the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) and National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC), the health ministry increased the interval between doses.
In this phase of vaccination, starting April 1, everybody over the age of 45 will be eligible for the vaccination. The cut-off date has been set as January 1, 1977, hence one must be born before this date to be able to receive the covid jab.
The government advises all those getting inoculated to collect their vaccination certificate after receiving the vaccine shot. This certificate can be procured digitally or in the form of a hard copy, but collecting this has been touted as significant by the government.
