Haryana Minister Anil Vij tests COVID-19 positive, was given shot of Covaxin last month

Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij, who was administered a dose of Covaxin last month, tweeted on Saturday that he has tested positive for the disease and has been admitted to a hospital.

Vij was given a shot of Covaxin, which is being indigenously developed by the Bharat Biotech in a joint venture with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), at a hospital in Ambala on November 20 as part of the third phase of the trial of the potential vaccine against the Coronavirus disease.

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“I have been tested Corona positive. I am admitted in Civil Hospital Ambala Cantt. All those who have come in close contact to me are advised to get themselves tested for corona,” he tweeted.

Vij had stepped in to be the first volunteer for the third phase trial of Covaxin, which commenced in Haryana on November 20.

“Trial for the third phase of Covaxin, a coronavirus vaccine product produced by Bharat Biotech, to start in Haryana on 20th November. I have offered myself as the first volunteer to get vaccinated,” Vij, who also holds the home portfolio, had tweeted on November 18.

“I will be administered trial dose tomorrow at 11 am, at Civil Hospital, Ambala Cantt under the expert supervision of a team of Doctors from PGI Rohtak and Health Department. I have volunteered to take the trial dose,” the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader had tweeted a day before he was given the shot.

Bharat Biotech had earlier reported that phase 3 trials would involve a total of 26,000 people and be held at 25 centres across the country. “After successful completion of the interim analysis from the phase 1 and 2 clinical trials of Covaxin, Bharat Biotech received Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) approval for phase 3 clinical trials in 26,000 participants in over 25 centres across India,” the company had said in a statement. This will be India’s first phase 3 efficacy study for a COVID-19 vaccine, and the largest such trial ever conducted in the country, the statement added.

According to top officials of the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (ICMR-NICED) in Kolkata, the results of the phase-III trial of the indigenously developed coronavirus vaccine candidate, Covaxin, will be ready in November 2021. The interim report may be available by May 2021 at the earliest, they added.