Human Trial for 'Indian COVID-19 Vaccine' Done - Minister Shares 'Result' Details!

As the novel coronavirus continues to spread around the world, India came up with a breakthrough update on the deadly vaccine. 

Haryana health minister Anil Vij took to his social media account and announced that clinical trials to fight Covid-19 with Covaxin have started at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) in Rohtak. This will be the country’s foremost vaccine candidate for Covid-19. 

“Three subjects were enrolled for this purpose today (Friday). All three have tolerated the vaccine very well. There were no adverse effects,” he tweeted in his post.

According to a Hindustan Times report, 10 days since PGIMS began enrolling subjects for clinical trials of Covaxin and close to 100 individuals from Haryana have registered to be a part of the study.  

Meanwhile, officials at PGIMS Rohtak state that, said that "22 of these volunteers have already been screened for their medical history, and that at least three of them will receive a dose of the experimental vaccine by the weekend or early next week."

"This Covaxin is an indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, which is being developed by Bharat Biotech and the ICMR’s National Institute of Virology, Pune. It is one of the two Indian vaccine candidates that have received the Drug Controller General of India’s nod to proceed with the Phase 1 and Phase 2 human clinical trials. In Rohtak, the sample size for Phase 1 trials is expected to around 8 to 10 people," officials said.

Dr Dhruv Chaudhary, who is a part of a three-member team leading the clinical trials at PGIMS, Rohtak, asserted that, “the first batch of volunteers have been screened. Eight individuals have undergone rigorous medical scrutiny to check whether or not they have been previously infected with the virus, whether they suffer from any ailments of the liver, lungs, or kidneys, and to check if they have any history of other infectious diseases."

"Three of these volunteers, who were found eligible, will receive a dose of the vaccine, possibly by the weekend. Another 14 people were screened on Thursday and their biochemical reports are awaited," he later added.