Drug manufacturer the Serum Institute of India (SII) has sought India’s drug regulator’s approval for the Covishield vaccine as a booster shot quoting adequate stock of the vaccine in the country, informed the officials to ANI on Thursday.
Due to the emergence of a new COVID-19 variant called ‘Omicron’ the demand has been made said the officials. The Serum Institute of India is the first Indian company to seek approval for the coronavirus booster dose.
The Union government has also informed the Parliament that the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization and National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 are seeing scientific evidence on the booster shot. States like Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Kerala have also urged the Central government for booster dose amid another variant of concern, Omicron.
The Chief Executive Officer of SII, Adar Poonawalla recently in an interview with a media organisation said that the scientists at Oxford may come out with a new vaccine that would act as a booster in six months’ time against this new variant of coronavirus. The new Omicron variant was first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by South Africa on November 24.
According to the WHO, its high number of mutations in spike protein could make it more contagious than all previous strains. South African medical officials have reported the variant was found in fully vaccinated individuals and the cases are mild.