VISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra Medical College-King George Hospital has set the ball rolling for human trials of Covid-19 vaccine Covishield. KGH superintendent and AMC principal PV Sudhakar told TNIE here on Saturday that they received vaccine samples and began registration of volunteers. Ten volunteers have been registered for human trials of vaccine so far. About 100 volunteers, who are healthy and above 18 years of age, will be chosen.
The volunteers will be administered the vaccine five times over a period of six months and their blood samples will be tested during the period. The samples will be sent to the Serum Institute of India. Now, human trials are going on in 17 cities in the country, he said.
The Covid vaccine candidate named Covishield was developed jointly by University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute and AstraZeneca. Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has partnered with British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca for manufacturing the Covid-19 vaccine candidate in India.
He said a 20-member team, including principal investigator B Devi Madhavi and six co-investigators, will conduct the human trials. Each volunteer has to make six visits to the hospital to get vaccine administered. The gap between the first and second visits should be two days, 28 days between the second and third visits, 30 days between the third and fourth visits, 30 days between the fourth and fifth visits and the final visit after 90 days.
The vaccine will be administered to volunteers on the basis of randomisation. Initially, they have to undergo preliminary tests for two days. Vaccine doses will be administered to three to four volunteers a day. Blood samples will be collected during their every visit, he added.
Active cases in Vizag fall to 3,521
Visakhapatnam: The number of active Covid-19 cases declined to 3,521 on Saturday as against 3,819 on Friday. A total of 225 fresh cases were reported in the district, taking the total count to 51,339. Four deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, increasing the toll to 413, said Covid-19 Special Officer for Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam PV Sudhakar. Meanwhile, 519 people were discharged from Covid hospitals. With this the total recoveries in the district increased to 47,405. There are 34 very active containment clusters and 48 active clusters in the district.