Centre approves nasal vaccine

New Delhi: Bharat Biotech's intranasal Covid vaccine has been approved by the Union Health Ministry as a booster dose for those aged 18 years and above and is likely to be introduced on the Co-WIN platform on Friday evening, official sources said.

The needle-free vaccine will be available at private hospitals as of now and can be administered as a precaution dose to adults who have been vaccinated with two doses of either Covishield or Covaxin. It is likely to be rolled out in the national Covid vaccination programme soon, they said. The ministry's approval for the intranasal vaccine as a booster comes amid a spurt in Covid cases in China and some other countries.