A senior doctor on Sunday said that more than 750 volunteers are administered the 1st dose of Bharat Biotechs coronavirus vaccine Covaxin as a part of the phase-3 trials at Ahmedabad’s hospital. None of the volunteers have experienced any side effects till now.

Bharat Biotech is developing Covaxin in association with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV). The phase-III trials of the Covaxin vaccine are conducted at Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad.

Dr Kiran Rami, who is the head of the hospitals TB and chest department, said that more than 750 volunteers, which also includes around 50 healthcare workers such as doctors, nurses, paramedical staff are administered the 1st dose of Covaxin asthe phase-3 trial had begun on 25th November. Till now, none of the volunteers have experienced any side effects.

He further said that a total number of 1,000 volunteers will be administered the vaccine by this month-end. They have also started giving the 2nd booster dose to the volunteers who have completed 28 days after taking the 1st dose. Almost 15 volunteers are covered so far. For the 2nd booster dose, those volunteers who completed 28 days, are called by the hospital. The volunteers were given a diary with the proper details of their schedule.

The 1st dose of the Covaxinis given after the obligatory RT-PCR test. Though, for the 2nd booster dose, no such test is compulsory when the vaccine is being administered. But the volunteers who take the vaccine have to undergo RT-PCR test every month for at least ten months.

Ahmedabad’s Sola civil hospital was chosen for the phase-3 human trials of Covaxin on 1,000 volunteers.

Source: mint