Govt Scientists To Study Efficacy Of Single Dose Covishield Vaccine, Mixed Doses Of Separate Vaccines: Report

Government scientists are set to study different combinations of the usage of vaccines and their efficacy in dealing with the Covid-19.

They will study various combinations of doses for coronavirus vaccines to see if the use of different brands leads to better efficacy. Moreover, their effectiveness in being used as only a single dose or as a shot following the booster dose to augment immunity of fully vaccinated individuals will also be looked into.

Studies carried out by independent researchers in different countries have inferred that a one-dose approach particularly for Covishield should proceed with caution as the present evidence indicates that it might not give the adequately required protection.

Dr NK Arora, chairman of the Covid-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) told the Hindustan Times, “We will be looking at the feasibility of testing two dose Covid-19 vaccine regimen but with different vaccines, for which testing may start in few weeks.”

He added, “Dosing interval will also be examined, that includes whether a single dose or a dose followed by a booster shot or so on works better.”

Moreover, this practice could also be extended to other vaccines such as Covaxin and even Zydus Cadilla’s ZyCov-D, which is under trials presently.

Dr Arora mentioned that the objective is to determine the most accurate dosing interval that is able to provide the maximum protection, especially considering the number of variants of Covid-19 that are circulating in nature.