COVID-19 vaccine: Bharat Biotech's COVAXIN begins Phase 2 of human trials at PGI Rohtak

Phase 2 of the human clinical trial of Bharat Biotech's COVAXIN, India’s first indigenously developed vaccine against COVID-19, began at Post Graduate Institute (PGI) Rohtak on Wednesday. The trial is being conducted on 50 volunteers at PGIMS, Rohtak, of the total 380 volunteers across the country.

Twelve volunteers, between 12 and 65 years of age, were administered the first dose of Covaxin on Wednesday morning. The Covid-19 vaccine is being developed Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV).

Dr Ramesh Verma, co-investigator of the trials at PGIMS Rohtak, said the volunteers were given the first dose of three micrograms, while young males were given six micrograms of the vaccine. The volunteers were kept under observation for two hours and they showed positive results, he said.

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During this phase of the clinical trials, all volunteers are not healthy unlike in phase one. A second dose will be administered to these volunteers after 28 days. That time, they will be given two doses. The institute is conducting a full-body test of the volunteers to exclude those suffering from major ailments.

Phase 2 of the human clinical trials of Covaxin started on Tuesday after the successful trial of 375 volunteers across the country. Eighty-one of them were tested at PGIMS. The ICMR has not shared data of how many antibodies were developed in the bodies of volunteers of the first phase, Verma said.

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COVID-19 on the rise in India

India reported 89,706 new cases on Wednesday, 61% of which were reported from five states — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu — the Union Health Ministry has said. The Ministry also said that these five states also account for 70% of all the COVID-19 deaths in the country. Rajesh Bhusan said in a statement, “There are 14 states and Union Territories that have less than 5000 COVID-19 cases. 28 states/UTs have COVID-19 case fatality rate lower than the national average of 1.70%.”

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Union Health Ministry Secretary Rajesh Bhusan said, “The case fatality rate is continuously declining. It was at 2.15% in the first week of August, now it stands at 1.70%." As per the COVID-19 reports by the Ministry of Health Country's COVID-19 deaths per million population is 53 which is among the lowest across the world. 

India witnessed a sudden spike with fresh cases in 24 hours after over 90,000 cases were reported on Sunday and Monday. The total number of COVID-19 cases recorded in India is 42,80,422 out of which 33,23,950 people have recovered and 72,775 have died.

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