The Union ministry of health has accepted recommendations by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) of deferring vaccination by three months after recovery. As per new recommendations of NEGVAC, if a person is infected with Covid after the first dose, the second dose of the vaccine has to be deferred by three months after clinical recovery from the illness.
SARS-2 Covid-19 patients who have been given anti-SARS-2 monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma have to defer vaccination by 3 months from the date of discharge from the hospital. Persons with any other serious general illness requiring hospitalisation or ICU care should also wait for 4-8 weeks before getting the vaccine.
NEGVAC has also recommended vaccination for all lactating women. However, vaccination of pregnant women is still under discussion and will be taken up by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization. No screening of vaccine recipients by rapid antigen test would be required prior to vaccination. An individual can donate blood after 14 days of either receipt of vaccine or testing RT-PCR negative, if suffering from the disease.
Meanwhile, the central government has given states advance visibility on vaccine doses supply availability till June 15, 2021. A total of 5,86,29,000 is being provided to states by the central government from May 1 to June 15. The government would be procuring 50% of both the Covishield and Covaxin vaccines manufactured in India and making it available to the states free of cost.
In addition, as per data from vaccine manufacturers, a total of 4,87,55,000 doses will also be available till end of June 2021 for direct procurement by states and union territories. Both the state governments and private vaccination centres have been told to publish their vaccination calendar on CoWIN digital platform in advance. This was being done to enable states to make district wise allocation, better plan vaccination and prevent overcrowding at vaccination centres.
