Students and those travelling abroad for jobs or as part of the Indian contingent for Tokyo Olympic Games can take the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Covishield after 28 days, the Centre said on Monday.
As per the revised rules, the facility will be available to those who need to undertake international travel for the specified purposes till August 31 this year, and the mention of the vaccine type as “Covishield” is sufficient and “no other qualifying entries are required,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.
Competent authority
While the States and Union Territories will designate a competent authority in each district for permission for such administration of second dose of Covishield, the order states that CoWIN certificates will be linked to the passports of such travellers.
At present, based on the recommendations of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC), the schedule of the Covishield vaccine is to administer the second dose at 12-16 weeks interval (i.e. after 84 days), after the administration of first dose.
The Ministry said the CoWIN system would soon provide the facility for the administration of second dose in such exceptional cases.
The Ministry said it was advised that vaccination might be availed of in such cases through passport, which was one of the permissible ID documents as per the current guidelines, so that the passport number was printed in the certificate. If passport was not used at the time of administration of the first dose, the details of the photo ID card used for vaccination would be printed in the vaccination certificate and mention of the passport in the vaccination certificate was not to be insisted upon.
“Wherever necessary, the competent authority may issue another certificate linking the vaccination certificate with the passport number of the beneficiary,” said the Ministry.
The Ministry has issued standard operating procedures (SOPs) in this regard and the States and Union Territories have been advised to widely publicise and take all necessary measures to immediately implement them, said the statement. It said the change had been brought to provide full coverage of vaccination and facilitate international travel.
