Kolkata, January 7: Medical experts believe that after the administration of mixed doses of COVID-19 vaccine, patients need to be kept under observation for at least an hour to determine no side effects of the cocktail of two antiviral jabs.

Speaking to ANI, Dr Rupali Basu, Director and CEO of Woodlands Hospital, said, "Cocktail doses is a mixture of two antiviral doses. It is a monoclonal antibody therapy and it requires one-hour hospital admission and the patient need to be kept under observation. There are certain criteria which we have to follow before administering the doses." Also Read | Republic Day 2022: From Central Vista Route to Chief Guests, Here’s All We Know So Far About January 26 Celebrations This Year.

She further said, "For inoculating cocktail doses, the patient should have comorbidity; should be aged above 12 years and should have an indication of early disease. The doses can be administerd after an assessment by clinicians. The protocol to administer monoclonal antibody therapy is decided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)." Also Read | Assembly Elections 2022: Election Commission Top Officials Briefed About COVID-19 Spread, Vaccination Coverage in Poll-Bound States, Says Health Ministry.

Dr Basu said, "We will start giving booster doses from January 10. The booster dose will be the same vaccine as the first two shots. Those who got Covaxin will receive the Covaxin and those who got Covishield will get Covishield."

Dr Basu also requested teenagers to get their jabs as soon as possible. According to Dr Basu, the third wave of COVID-19 may gradually decline by the first week of February.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)