Sometime back, media reported that Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine, iNCOVACC, will soon be available as a booster shot for eligible adults come the fourth week of January.
iNCOVACC Nasal Vaccines
In a recent development, the head of the country’s vaccine task force said that India’s nasal vaccine cannot be given to those who have already taken a precaution or booster dose.
When it comes to these Nasal vaccines, they are sprayed into the nose directly.
It is noteworthy here that they cannot be taken by those who have already taken their booster shots and are recommended as the first booster shots.
This would be particularly useful for the people who fear the jab as they can take a sigh of relief as the administration of these vaccines is quick and painless.
Coming to the frequency, these nasal vaccines will be administered to people twice with a gap of 28 days.
Any 18+ individual can take it who has already received covaxin or covishield vaccine earlier which is why it is also Known as heterologous booster.
How To Use iNCOVACC ?
During last week, the nasal vaccine iNCOVACC was introduced on the CoWIN platform.
With the information provided by Dr NK Arora, the nasal vaccine is to be used as the “first booster” who is the Chairman of the Covid Working Group of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI).
Here mentioned NTAGI works on introducing new vaccines and strengthening the universal immunization programme in India.
He further asserted that CoWIN will not accept a fourth dose, Dr Arora explains the concept of ‘antigen sink’.
Further explaining, if an individual is repeatedly immunized with a particular type of antigen, the body stops responding or responds poorly.
This is the reason why initially mRNA vaccines are given on a gap of six months, he said.
Adding that taking a fourth dose at this time will be of no value according to Dr Arora.
Here introduced iNCOVACC first enters the respiratory system through nose and mouth, and here the immune system builds roadblocks to stop the virus from entering the system.
As expected, this will definitely help in fighting not only Covid-19 but all other respiratory viruses and infections, as per the media report.
How To Take iNCOVACC?
Anyone above the age of 18 years can get the nasal vaccine, only condition is that they have not already taken the booster dose.
Further, this vaccine is administered through the nostril, with just 4 drops in each nostril, this way, iNCOVACC an extremely safe vaccine according to Arora.
Onec the vaccine is administered, one needs to wait for about 15 to 30 minutes to observe and take care if there is any reaction just like with other vaccines, he said.
