Gap between 2nd COVID-19 vaccine dose and precaution dose likely to be 9 to 12 months

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently announced that frontline and health workers, along with people above the age of 60 with comorbidities, will be administered another dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, which is being called the “precaution dose”.

The vaccination drive for the booster dose or precaution dose of the COVID-19 vaccine will commence from January 10, 2022, as per the central government. Ever since this announcement, people have been curious about what is the gap between the second and the precaution dose of the vaccine.

As per news agency PTI, official sources have suggested that the gap between the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and the precaution dose is likely to be 9 to 12 months. It must be noted that no formal announcements have been made in this regard yet.

According to the official sources, the gaps between the vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin, which have majorly been used in the inoculation drive in India, are currently being fixed and an announcement will be made in this regard soon.

“The gap between the second and the precautionary dose of Covid vaccine is likely to be nine to 12 months with the immunisation division and the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) discussing on these lines,” a source said, as per PTI reports.

Apart from the decision regarding the administration of a precaution dose of the vaccine, PM Modi also announced that the vaccination drive for children is set to kick off in January. The teenagers between the ages of 15 to 18 will be able to get their COVID-19 shots from January 3, 2022.

These decisions have been taken in view of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, which has spread to multiple states in India and has raised concerns regarding the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. Till now, over 400 cases of Omicron have been detected in India.