No mix-and-match, precautionary dose same as Covid vaccine previously given: Govt

The "precautionary" or the third dose to be administered to eligible beneficiaries from January 1o will be of the same COVID-19 vaccine as the first two doses, the government said on January 5.

"Precautionary COVID-19 vaccine dose will be the same vaccine as has been given previously. Those who have received Covaxin will receive Covaxin, those who have received primary two doses of Covishield will receive Covishield," NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr VK Paul said, during the Union health ministry's press briefing.

The clarification comes as reports suggested that the government may permit mix-and-match use of vaccines for precautionary doses.

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The precautionary doses will be administered to healthcare and other frontline workers along with those aged 60 and above with comorbidities from next week.

The decision to administer the third dose was taken amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases across the nation. The fresh spike is considered to have been triggered by the highly contagious Omicron variant of coronavirus.

The country's daily infection count touched 58,097 on January 5, marking a 55 percent jump as compared to the previous day. A total of 534 deaths due to COVID-19 were recorded in this period.

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“India has reported a more than 6.3 times increase in cases in the last eight days. A sharp increase seen in case positivity from 0.79 per cent on December 29, 2021 to 5.03 per cent on January 5,” Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in Ministry of Health said during the press conference.

The official tally of Omicron cases increased to 2,153. However, the actual spread of infections caused by the new variant is believed to be higher as only a small fraction of samples obtained from COVID-19 patients are sent for genome sequencing.

Overall, the country's active caseload has risen from 77,000 to 2.14 lakh within a week, the health ministry officials said.