The Punjab Health Department is likely to roll out a new Covid-19 vaccine (ZyCoV-D) in the state by next week.

Initially, it will be administered in Patiala, Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts. Beneficiaries aged above 18, who have yet to receive the first dose of any Covid vaccine, would be administered the world’s first needle-free vaccine. Unlike Covishield and Covaxin, ZyCoV-D will be administered in three doses at a gap of 28 days between consecutive shots.
Only around 41 per cent of the total targeted population has been fully vaccinated in the state so far. Around 1.68 crore beneficiaries in the state have received one dose of Covishield or Covaxin, while 85 lakhs have received both doses of the said vaccines.

ZyCov – D is the second indigenous vaccine next to COVAXIN. The unique feature of ZyCov – D is that it is needle – less vaccine. At first, the ZyCov – D vaccine is to be launched in seven states. They are Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Punjab, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

About ZyCov – D Vaccine
The vaccine is to be administered only persons in the age group of 12 to 19 years.
The ZyCov – D is administered using a needle – free applicator.
It is a three dose vaccine. It is taken at 28th day and 56th day of the first dose.
The ZyCov – D showed 66.6% efficiacy.
The vaccine was developed by the Indian Pharmaceutical company called Cadila Healthcare.
ZyCov – D developed on Plasmid DNA
The ZyCov – D vaccine was developed on plasmid DNA. In simple terms, it was developed using a piece of DNA of the weakened or killed virus. When this DNA piece is injected into the body, the human immune systems learn to respond against the virus. The plasmid is produced using E Coli cells.

Why is ZyCov – D called needle – less vaccine?
Because, ZyCov – D is injected using a jet injector. A jet injector is an injecting syringe. Here a narrow high-pressure stream of liquid penetrates the outer most layer of the skin. With this, the medication reaches the underlying tissues of the epidermis. This is better than the conventional method of using needles. This is because in this method, the vaccines travel across cell plasma membrane and nuclear membrane.  On the other hand, the conventional methods give low immunogenicity.