Corbevax Can Be Used As Booster Jab For Above 18 Years: Source

Fully vaccinated with Covishield/Covaxin can have Corbevax as booster...

Govt. of India has approved Biological E's Corbevax as a precaution dose or booster jab for those above 18 years fully vaccinated with either Covishield or Covaxin, said an official source.

The first time that a booster dose that is different from the one used for primary vaccination against Covid has been allowed in the country.

In a report by news agency PTI, the source said that the Union Health Ministry's approval was based on the recommendations made recently by the COVID-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI).

"Corbevax will be considered as a precaution dose after completion of six months or 26 weeks from the date of administration of the second dose of either Covaxin or Covishield vaccines for those aged above 18 years enabling use of Corbevax as a heterologous COVID-19 vaccine for precaution dose administration in this age group," said the source.

Ahead of that, this will be in addition to the existing guidelines for homologous precaution dose administration of Covaxin and Covishield vaccine, the sources added.

Necessary changes regarding the administration of the precautionary dose of the Corbevax vaccine are being made on the Co-WIN portal.

India's first indigenously developed RBD protein subunit vaccine Corbevax is currently being used to inoculate children in the age group of 12 to 14 years under the COVID-19 immunisation programme.

The COVID-19 Working Group (CWG), in its July 20 meeting, reviewed data of the double-blind randomised phase-3 clinical study which evaluated the immunogenicity and safety of a booster dose of Corbevax vaccine when administered to COVID-19-negative adult volunteers of age 18-80 years previously vaccinated with two doses of either Covishield or Covaxin.