Haryana MLA Anil Vij Takes Trial Dose of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin

Covaxin is India’s first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine candidate and is being developed by Bharat Biotech.

Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij on Thursday, 19 November, took to Twitter to announce that he would be administered a trial dose of Covaxin on Friday, adding that he had volunteered to take it.

(Photo: The Quint)

Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij has been administered the trial dose of Covaxin, a coronavirus vaccine, at the Civil Hospital at Ambala Cantt on Friday, 20 November. In the third phase of the trial of Covaxin, MLA Vij has volunteered himself to be the first recipient of the vaccine.

Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij being administered the Covaxin, the coronavirus vaccine in one of the largest medical trials in India in the effort to fight the pandemic. ANI Twitter

Covaxin is is India’s first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine candidate and is being developed by Bharat Biotech along with the Indian Council of Medical Research. Bharat Biotech had announced that the phase-3 trials will have 26,000 volunteers across India, who must be 18 and above in age. This is the largest clinical trial conducted for a COVID-19 vaccine in the country.

In Haryana, Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma University of Health Sciences in Rohtak and ESIC hospital in Faridabad are some of the sites across the country where the medical trials will be conducted, announced Bharat Biotech.

Earlier on Thursday, 19 November, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij took to Twitter to announce that the third phase of trial of Covaxin will begin in Haryana on 20 November and he would be administered a trial dose of Covaxin on Friday. He added that he had volunteered to be the first to take it.

The minister further said that it would take place at Civil Hospital, Ambala Cantonment under the expert supervision of a team of doctors from PGI Rohtak and the state Health Department.

(With inputs from ANI)