COVID-19 vaccine: PGI Rohtak to start Bharat Biotech's Covaxin's Phase-2 trials

phase 2 clinical trial of Bharat Biotech's COVAXIN, India’s first indigeusly developed vaccine against COVID-19, is all set to begin at Post Graduate Institute (PGI) Rohtak,  vice-chancellor has informed.

"We got permission from Bharat Biotech to start a phase-2 human clinical trial of ir vaccine. We've 300 volunteers, d between 12 years and 65 years, out of which screening of 15 has been completed," Dr. OP Kalra said, adding y hope to get vaccine doss by Wednesday morning.

Covaxin is one of frontrunners in race for a Coronavirus vaccine in India. It is an “inactivated" vaccine — it works by injecting doses of virus that have been killed aiming to prompt body to build antibodies against it without virus posing a threat.  human trials for Covaxin commenced in Haryana on July 17.

Recently, Niti Aayog member Dr. Vid K Paul said that Bharat Biotech's vaccine candidate procured by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Zydus Cadila's candidate based on viral DNA are two Indian COVID-19 vaccines in second phase trial.

"In India, Bharat Biotech's vaccine candidate based on inactivated virus procured by ICMR is in Phase II trial along with Zydus Cadila's candidate which is based on viral DNA. Oxford vaccine candidate developed by Serum Institute of India is already in Phase III trial in Maharashtra and some or States," he said.

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India Coronavirus outbreak 

On Monday, India surpassed Brazil to become country with second-highest number of coronavirus cases in world. total coronavirus cases in country reached 42,04,614 including 8,82,542 active cases, 32,50,429 cured/discharged/migrated and 71,642 deaths, as per Health Ministry data. recovery rate stands at 77.65% while case fatality rate is 1.70%. 

Moreover, India scaled ar peak after its cumulative tests surpassed 5 crore on Tuesday. As per Health Ministry,  5,06,50,128 have been conducted of which 0,98,621 tests were conducted in last 24 hours.  tests per million (TPM) have seen a sharp rise from 6,396 on July 1 to 36,703 as of today. re are 1,668 test labs in country; 1035 labs in government sector and 633 private labs.

(With ANI inputs)

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