Anti-Covid vaccine human trial starts at Rohtak's PGIMS

ROHTAK: Clinical human trial of the indigenous anti-Covid-19 vaccine began on Friday with three volunteers chosen after health checks being administered the first dose at the Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak.
Addressing a press conference on Friday, Dr O P Kalra, vice-chancellor of the University of Health Sciences, Rohtak, of which PGIMS is a part, said trial of the vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech, a Hyderabad-based company, has been started by 12 health institutes including PGIMS and AIIMS-Delhi.
Dr Kalra said the volunteers aged between 30 years and 55 years were administered the first dose of vaccine and doctors observed no adverse impact of the vaccine on the volunteers during the three-hour observation period.
He said the second dose would be administered after two weeks to see its further impact, and if all goes well during the trial period, then more volunteers would be roped in for the trial.
"Our effort is to study the impact and results of the trial period on volunteers, but safety of the volunteers remains the priority of the health institute," Dr Kalra said.
Dr Kalra said 10 new volunteers have been tested for vaccine trials on Friday and they would be administered the vaccine shortly to study its impact.
Volunteers sought for clinical trial of vaccine
Dr Savita Verma, principal investigator of the human trial team, urged the public to come forward to volunteer for clinical trial so that vaccines can be tested and tried as per norms.
Talking to TOI, Dr Dhruva Chaudhry, state nodal officer of COVID-19 at PGIMS Rohtak, said if the vaccine produces desired results, it would be used for vaccination of healthy persons to prevent coronavirus.
On being asked about possible adverse impact on the volunteers, he said that the risk is fully covered by the government and treatment would be done by the institute for free. Dr Chaudhary said that any interested person can get registered for the trial by calling the Covid helpline 9416447071 of PGIMS.