Amidst the rising cases of Wuhan Coronavirus in India, the human clinical trials for the much-anticipated vaccine has been initiated in six cities. Reportedly, the vaccine candidates of two companies, namely, Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila are currently being used for the clinical trials.
As per the report, both the vaccine candidates were approved for Phase I and Phase II trials and they were administered for the first time to volunteers on July 15. Reportedly, another vaccine developed by Oxford University will also be tested in India, on receiving regulatory approval.
Covaxin, developed by Bharat Biotech, is used for human trials in several Indian cities such as Delhi, Hyderabad, Patna, Kancheepuram, and Rohtak. The clinical trials will then be reportedly initiated in other cities including Nagpur, Visakhapatnam, Belgaum, Gorakhpur, and Kanpur. As per reports, while the testing of ZyCov-D developed by Zydus Cadila is limited to Ahmedabad, Covaxin is set to be tested on 500 volunteers between 18 and 55 in 12 different hospitals in 12 different cities. The vaccine candidate is the result of a joint collaboration between the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV).
India puts potential vaccines to human trials in 6 Indian cities. ‘No immediate side effects observed’, authorities say. India remains the world’s third worst-hit country.@PriyankaSh25 brings the story pic.twitter.com/EuPAEAX9bp
— WION (@WIONews) July 26, 2020
No major side effects of Coronavirus vaccine
Dr. Sanjay Rai who serves as the principal investigator of the human trial project at AIIMS Delhi informed that there was no immediate major side effect on a volunteer after he was administered the vaccine.
There are some minor side effects – like redness of the skin where the dose was given, pain and mild fever – which can be seen in any vaccine test. But, it went smoothly without any other health issues. The doctors are continuously monitoring their health, ” PK Singh heading the clinical trials at AIIMS Patna was quoted as saying.
