India’s wider gap for Covishield doses a reasonable approach, says Fauci

Chief medical adviser to the White House, Dr Anthony Fauci, said on Thursday that India’s move to widen the gap between two doses of Covishield was a 'reasonable approach' to accelerate its vaccination drive amid a visible dearth of jabs.

The Indian Health Ministry on Thursday increased the gap between the first and second doses of the vaccine to 12-16 weeks from the six-eight weeks it had advised so far. The move copped criticism from some corners that believed it was a bid to mask the fact that India was running short on vaccines.

"When you are in a very difficult situation, the way you are in India, you have to try and figure out ways to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as you can, so I believe that it is a reasonable approach to do," Fauci told news agency ANI, adding that the bigger interval was likely to boost efficiency as well.

Read | Gap between Covishield vaccine doses extended to 12-16 weeks

Fauci said the decision should not be termed a “cover up”, given the acute scarcity of vaccines the country currently faces.

India’s vaccine drive has hit roadblocks in recent weeks as cases pile up and manufacturers struggle to speed up production to meet states’ demands. To ease the burden on manufacturers and shore up supply, India is likely to begin administering Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine to citizens next week.

Fauci said that the Russian-made vaccine “seems to be quite efficacious, of a high level of close to 90 per cent or so.”

Read | Covid-19 vaccine: Sputnik V to be available in India from next week

The US health official also suggested that India should make more use of its military to offload some of the pressure on its overburdened medical infrastructure.

“…I know that there's a shortage of hospital beds right now that people who need to be in a hospital or not getting into a hospital because of the shortage of the beds, you can get the military to put up field hospitals, the same way they would during time of war, that could serve as a substitute for the classic hospital." Fauci said.

On the question of resuming travel to India, Fauci said it would be very difficult to restart travel to the country while infection rates remain at extremely elevated levels. He also said that the US was not going to mandate a “vaccine passport” for its borders, though individual airlines would be free to decide on asking for vaccination certificates.