Second dose to be deferred by three months after recovery from virus: India health ministry

India's health ministry said on Wednesday that if an individual is infected after the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine then the "second dose should be deferred by three months after clinical recovery from the virus."

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"An individual can donate blood after 14 days of either receiving vaccine or testing RT-PCR negative if suffering from COVID-19," the ministry added.

India's health ministry officials recommended vaccination for lactating women while adding that there was no need for screening of vaccine recipients by rapid antigen test prior to vaccination.

The new recommendations by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) have been communicated to various states and Union Territories in India.

Meanwhile, the virus second wave continues with Kerala reporting 32,762 new coronavirus cases including 112 deaths in the last 24 hours. The death toll due to the virus in the state has now risen to 6,724 along with the 18,94,518, according to the state government.

India's national capital reported 3,846 new virus cases including 235 deaths on Wednesday amid the lockdown. The death toll due to the virus since last year has climbed to 22,346 in Delhi with 14,06,719 reported COVID-19 cases.

Meanwhile,  Karnataka deputy chief minister Ashwathnarayan said that 2 crore vaccine doses have been placed with the Serum Institute of India(SII) and 1 crore with Bharat Biotech. 

"We are requesting them to scale up the supply," Karnataka deputy chief minister said, adding, "by August, we will have huge vaccine availability. Probably by end of December, we can expect the entire population to have at least a single dose."

Ashwathnarayan said that testing has also been ramped up with results coming in  24 hours at most of the places instead of  5-7 days earlier.

According to the government, a total of 5,86,29,000 doses will be provided free of cost from May 1 to June 15 with a total of 4,87,55,000 doses to be made available till end of June for direct procurement by states and Union Territories.