Dr Anthony Fauci, the medical advisor to the United States President, said today that extending intervals between vaccine doses could leave people vulnerable to infection by one of the Covid variants in circulation.
Dr Fauci was responding to a question about recommended intervals in the light of revised guidelines by the Indian government last month.
"The ideal interval between doses for mRNA vaccines is three weeks for the Pfizer and four for the Moderna. The problem with extending intervals is that you become vulnerable to variants," he said.
Earlier in the day, the health ministry said that India reported 91,702 new COVID-19 cases and 3,403 deaths. The country has so far reported 2,92,74,823 cases of coronavirus and 3,63,079 deaths.
India's test positivity rate is on the decline. It stood at 4.48 per cent, below the 5 per cent-mark for the fourth straight day.
The active cases in the country reduced to 11,21,671 after 61 days comprising 3.83 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid recovery rate has improved to 94.93 per cent, the data said.
