India To Begin Roll Out Of Second Covid-19 Vaccine Shot Today; 7.8 Million People Administered First Dose So Far

India is set to begin administration of the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine today (13 February) to the people who had received the first shot of Covaxin or Covishield vaccines 28 days ago when the nationwide vaccination campaign had begun on 16 January, reports Hindustan Times.

It should be noted that as per government experts, the recipients will not need to take the second dose exactly after 28 days. Instead, a window of two weeks will be provided to the recipients from the 28-day mark. The second dosage can therefore be administered anytime between four to six weeks from the first dose's administration.

“The second dose can be given any time between four to six weeks. That’s the window period that we have,” said Dr VK Paul, member (health) of Niti Aayog was quoted as saying.

Dr Paul had himself received the first shot of Covaxin on 16 January. On the first day of the nationwide vaccination drive, as many as 2,02,000 people had been administered their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccines.

As per Dr Paul, the states have been given the flexibility to reschedule appointments in case a beneficiary is not able to show up on the stipulated date. In such cases, an alternative date will be given.

So far, India has vaccinated 7.8 million people with the first dose and is targeting to vaccinate 300 million people by end of July.