Haryana Minister Anil Vij to take Covaxin trial dose today, Edu min hints at shutting down schools

Haryana health minister Anil Vij.

Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij, who had volunteered to be the first one to get vaccinated in third phase of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for Covid-19, will get the vaccination Friday. The 67-year-old BJP veteran announced this on his twitter handle. He will get the dose of the indigenous of vaccine at Ambala Cantonment’s Civil Hospital. Vij also represents Ambala cantonment constituency.

“I will be administered a trial dose of Coronavirus vaccine #Covaxin a Bharat Biotech product tomorrow at 11 am at Civil Hospital, Ambala Cantt under the expert supervision of a team of doctors from PGI Rohtak and Health Department,” Vij said in his tweet.

Talking to the mediapersons, Vij said, “The first and second phase trials of Covaxin have been completed and remained successful. Now, the third phase trials are beginning. In the third phase, 26,000 volunteers will participate out of which 600 will be from Haryana”.

The human trial of Covaxin had begun at Rohtak’s Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in July. According to Thursday evening Covid-19 bulletin, another 2,212 new cases of Coronavirus infections and 20 deaths were reported in Haryana in the last 24 hours. The cumulative case count in the state reached 20,9251 with 2,113 deaths. In the same period, 2,156 patients recovered taking the total number of recoveries to 1,87,559.

The number of active Covid-patients in Haryana has reached 19,579 out of which 410 are in a critical condition (348 on oxygen support, 62 on ventilator support).

Majority of the new cases are being reported in the districts bordering Delhi, Faridabad (645), Gurgaon (489), Sonipat (130). Two other districts of Hisar and Rewari too added 162 and 106 new cases, respectively. Among the 20 patients who died included four in Hisar, three each in Gurgaon, Faridabad, two each in Rewari, Sirsa and Bhiwani, and one each in Ambala, Panchkula, Kurukshetra, and Jind.

As on Thursday evening, there were 2,29,838 persons under surveillance across Haryana. The Covid-positive rate in the state reached 6.82 per cent while the fatality rate was 1.01 per cent. The recovery rate in the state, Thursday evening, was 89.63 per cent.

Edu Minister hints at shutting down schools again

After a large number of students were found positive across Haryana’s various districts, Haryana’s Education Minister Kanwar Pal Thursday hinted at closing down of the schools, again. Although the decision was yet to be taken if the schools would be shut again in Haryana, state’s Directorate of School Education Thursday issued Standard Operating Procedures in wake of Covid-19 safety protocols to all the schools across the state.

As per the SOPs, schools have been asked to ensure checking of body temperature of anybody entering the school premises at the main entry gate, maintaining the daily body temperature record of all the students, teachers and school staff in the mobile app, maintaining the body temperature data of those who were denied entry in the school due to high temperature or any other symptom related to Covid-19, sending detailed record of each and every student, teacher or staff member whose samples have been taken by the Health Department for testing and submitting information about the students, teachers or any other staff member who tests positive for Covid-19 to the Directorate.

The Directorate has also asked the district education officers to submit the daily report by 4.30 pm to the office of Directorate of School Education.

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