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The coronavirus is here to stay and the entire globe is tuned up with this. Several governments are making arrangements for the third dose of coronavirus vaccine as new variants are emerging in the market on a monthly basis. The third wave of coronavirus is shattering some of the western countries of the globe. Cyrus Poonawalla, the Chairman of Serum Institute of India (SII) said there is a need of the third dose of coronavirus vaccine and Covishield's third dose of vaccine should be taken after six months after the second dose. Covishield is an Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that is manufactured by SII in Pune. Covishield and Covaxin are the two Indian vaccines that are approved for emergency use in India last year.

Responding about the reduction in the antibodies of Covishield as per the report from the Lancet, Cyrus Poonawalla said that it is untrue and the memory cells will remain. He said that the antibodies will go down after six months and hence the third dose of vaccine is given for 8000 employees of SII already. It is now required to take the third dose of coronavirus vaccine dose after six months. Cyrus Poonawall also responded about the huge gap between the shots of Covishield. He said that there is a shortage in the vaccine and hence Modi's government changed the gap to three months but two months gap is quite ideal.

Experts warned of a possible third wave of coronavirus from the end of August and the wave would reach the peaks in October. Cyrus Poonawall said that most of the coronavirus deaths occurred due to negligence and there is a delay in reporting the infections.

By Siva Kumar