Government’s COVID-19 vaccination registration portal, CoWIN (COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network), is now reconfigured to reflect change in dose interval of Covishield vaccine to 12-16 weeks.
Four months into the COVID-19 vaccination drive, the Union government on May 13 accepted the recommendation made by an expert panel to increase the gap between two Covishield vaccine doses to 12-16 weeks.
“The Government of India has communicated this change to states and UTs. The Co-WIN digital portal has also been reconfigured to reflect this extension of interval for two doses of Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII) to 12-16 weeks,” the ministry said.
‘However, there have been reports in a section of the media suggesting that people who had pre-booked their appointments for the second dose in less than 84 days on Co-WIN are being turned back from vaccination centres without getting the second dose of Covishield,” it said.
The Union government has reiterated to the states/UTs that online appointments booked for second dose of Covishield prior to this change of the interval between the two doses of Covishield, must be honoured.
It advised the states/UTs that the field staff may be instructed that, if such beneficiaries do come for vaccination, “the second Covishield dose must be administered and they must not be turned away”.
They have also been asked to undertake awareness activities to inform the beneficiaries about this change.
