If you test Covid-19 positive after first dose of vaccine, when do you get your second?

Hoping to keep the deadly virus at bay, more and more Indians are queuing in front of the vaccination centres

India is currently witnessing a massive surge in coronavirus cases, leading to an acute crisis in the supply of oxygen cylinders and availability of hospital beds.

Hoping to keep the deadly virus at bay, more and more people are queuing up at vaccination centres even as the country started its third phase of inoculation on May 1. The government has allowed vaccination of people belonging to the age group 18 to 44 years in a bid to vaccinate India's humongous population as fast as possible.

But, what if someone is infected by the deadly virus after taking the first dose of the vaccine?

Read more: Centre ignored warnings amid coronavirus surge: Scientists

The two doses of Covaxin should be taken at a gap of four weeks and doses of Covishield have to be taken at an interval of six to eight weeks.

If someone is infected during the interim period, he or she should wait for a while and safely take the vaccine any time after two to four weeks, after all the symptoms of the virus are gone, according to a report by News18.

If someone who has had Covid-19 recently wants to take the vaccine, then, ideally, that person should do so anytime between one to three months after symptom resolution, following infection with SARS-.CoV-2.

And if someone gets infected after taking both doses of either vaccine, there is no need for revaccination at the current time. The vaccine will remain effective and will manage the symptoms better.

Also Read: India expands Covid-19 vaccine drive despite chronic shortage

India's vaccine problem

India on Saturday opened up its jumbo vaccination drive for all adults, but many states do not have the stocks as hospitals reel from a vicious Covid surge.

Less than two months ago, the health minister said India was in the "end game" of the pandemic as New Delhi sent millions of vaccines to several countries. Now, the world's second-most populous nation is the epicentre of the global outbreak with almost 400,000 cases and more than 3,000 deaths every day.

Exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine by India's Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech's homegrown Covaxin have now been frozen to prioritise India's needs.

So far, around 150 million shots have been administered, equating to 11.5 per cent of the population of 1.3 billion people. Just 25 million have had two shots.