NEW DELHI: The All India Institute of Medical Sciences Delhi on Friday conducted the first trial ofCovaxin, India’s indigenous vaccine candidate against coronavirus. The vaccine was administered to a 30-year-old man who had volunteered for the trial run. “Two volunteers were called for Friday’s trial out of which one came today and the other will be injected on Saturday.
The person, after injecting the drug, was monitored for two hours. After showing no symptoms or no signs of side-effects, he was sent back home,” said Dr Sanjay Rai, Professor at the Centre for Community Medicine at AIIMS. The volunteer was first screened before the trial three days ago and given the first dose of 0.5 ml intramuscular injection around 1.30 pm.
“The person will be monitored for a week through telephone. We will keep taking updates from him about his health and how he is behaving. We have also given him a diary which has all necessary steps that need to be followed,” said the senior doctor.
According to him, 20 more volunteers have been screened so far whose reports are awaited. Depending upon the health condition of these volunteers, they will be administered the vaccine in the coming days. Earlier this week, AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria had said the trial would be conducted in three phases for which 1,125 samples were collected.
The phase-I trials will be conducted on healthy people aged 18-55 years who have no comorbidity. As many as 375 people were selected for the first phase. In the second phase, 750 people between 12-65 years will be studied.