: How Long Should You Wait Between Doses? All Your Vaccination Questions Answered #IndiaNEWS #Coronavirus This article is a part of a series by The Better India to share verified information about COVID-19

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How Long Should You Wait Between Doses? All Your Vaccination Questions Answered #IndiaNEWS #Coronavirus
This article is a part of a series by The Better India to share verified information about COVID-19 care. While several posts on various aspects of fighting COVID-19 are being circulated on social media and messaging services like WhatsApp, we urge you not to trust unverified content. To separate fact from fiction, we will be sharing the videos and content with doctors and experts and bring you their responses with scientific research-backed information.
WhatsApp groups are abuzz with questions about where, when and how one can get vaccinated. With a shortage of vaccines and the ‘recommended gap’ between doses being changed ever so often, there is a lot of confusion about when you should take the vaccine.
Dr Vikas Maurya, Director Pulmonology, Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, and Dr Mrinal Sircar, Director and Head, Pulmonology, Fortis Hospital, Noida, help us understand what the ideal gap between vaccines should be.
Dr Sircar and Dr Maurya
Here, we have also added the guidelines enlisted by Center for Disease Control (CDC) and India’s Health Ministry.
1. What is the ideal gap between doses for Covaxin and Covidshield, respectively?
Dr Maurya: The first dose is to prime the body and the second is the booster shot. It depends on which vaccine you have opted to get the first time around. The recommendation for Covaxin is between 4 to 6 weeks wait time between the first jab and the second. For Covishield, while the gap started off with 4 to 6 weeks, it has now been increased to 16 weeks.
Unfortunately, we are not privy to the vaccine research data that is used to determine the gap that is recommended between the two jabs. There might come a time when we get a one-shot vaccine.
Dr Sircar: The current guideline by India’s Health Ministry prescribes a wait period of four weeks for Covaxin and between 12 to 16 weeks for the second jab of Covishield. The UK also followed the 12 week wait period between the two jabs and this could also be to ensure that more vaccines are there to go around. This would also mean that a larger population would be able to get the first jab, which is a good thing.

Gap between 2 doses of #CovishieldVaccine has been increased to 12-16 weeks from 6-8 weeks currently.
Decision has been taken based on recommendations given by COVID working group after analysing emerging evidence. @PMOIndia @MoHFW_INDIA #Unite2FightCorona pic. twitter. com/kRbbjxGKSJ
— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) May 13, 2021
2. If you have contracted COVID-19, how long should you wait before the first jab?
Dr Maurya: The recommendation that was made early on suggests that one should wait between four to eight weeks after making a full recovery to get the vaccine jab.