As the novel Coronavirus continues to grip the nation with close to 13 lakh cases of infection so far, the phase-1 of clinical trail of India’s first indigenously-developed vaccine against Covid-19 called ‘Covaxin’ started at the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in New Delhi on Friday. As per reports, the first dose of injection was given to a man, who is in his 30s.
As soon as AIIMS announced to start the human trial of Covaxin, around 3,500 volunteers registered themselves for the same, of whom the screening of at least 22 people is underway, Dr Sanjay Rai, Professor at the Centre for Community Medicine at AIIMS and the principal investigator of the study told.
“The first volunteer, a resident of Delhi, was screened two days ago and all his health parameters were found to be within the normal range. He also does not have any co-morbid conditions,” Dr Rai said.
He further informed that the first dose of 0.5 ml intramuscular injection was given to him around 1.30 pm and no immediate side-effects have been observed so far.
The volunteer was under observation for two hours and will be monitored for the next seven days,” Rai said adding that more participants would be given the vaccine on Saturday after their screening reports come.
AIIMS-Delhi is among the 12 sites selected by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting phase I and II randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials of Covaxin.
The national medical institute had last week announced that it will begin human trials of India’s first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine from next week on 100 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 55.
These volunteers will be kept under observation for a period of nearly 150 days. Covaxin is developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV).
