This comes after 20 villagers in Uttar Pradesh’s Siddharthnagar district were administered a dose of Covaxin after the first dose of Covishield, triggering fear of side effects among people.
NITI Aayog Member Dr. VK Paul on Thursday said that the government is thinking to mix and match vaccine doses on a trial basis and that there is no “cause for concern” if people got different jabs. Dr. Paul also said that currently as per the protocol, recipients should stick to the same dose of vaccine as the first one.
As per the protocol, stick to the same dose of vaccine as the first one. If in case people are getting different doses there is no cause for concern, it's safe. We are thinking to mix and match (vaccine doses) on a trial basis: Dr VK Paul Member-Health, Niti Aayog pic.twitter.com/JFnF2BFVDe
— ANI (@ANI) May 27, 2021
“As per the protocol, stick to the same dose of vaccine as the first one. If in case people are getting different doses there is no cause for concern, it’s safe. We are thinking to mix and match (vaccine doses) on a trial basis” Dr Paul said as quoted by ANI.
This comes after 20 villagers in Uttar Pradesh’s Siddharthnagar district were administered a dose of Covaxin after the first dose of Covishield, triggering fear of side effects among people.
However, all the people who got a ‘cocktail’ of vaccines are doing fine at the moment.
Officials in Siddharthnagar district in Uttar Pradesh said they had launched an inquiry into the “administrative oversight”.
Sandeep Chaudhary, Chief Medical Officer of Siddharthnagar, told the NDTV that he had asked for an explanation from “those who are guilty” and vowed to take action against them.
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“There are no such guidelines from the government of India on any kind of ‘cocktail’ of vaccines and hence this is a matter of negligence. The person who is getting the first dose of a particular vaccine should get the second dose of the same vaccine as well. An inquiry was ordered in this case and our senior officers went to the spot and conducted an inquiry.” Chaudhary said.
Notably, Dr. VK Paul, in a press conference four days ago said that this mix and match of vaccines is only “theoretically possible” and that there is “no robust scientific evidence” to permit the mix-and-match usage of vaccines as of now.
Dr. VK Paul’s remarks come against the backdrop of a study conducted by the Oxford Vaccine Group, which showed that the mixed-use of Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines generated a potent immune response.
India reported 2,11,298 cases and 3847 deaths in the last 24 hours. 18,85,805 vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours, as per Union Health Ministry data.
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