The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) granted approval to two civic-run hospitals in Mumbai — King Edward Memorial (KEM), Parel, and BYL Nair Hospitals, Mumbai Central — for phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of Oxford-AstraZeneca, a promising vaccine for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). By August-end, the trial on 320 volunteers between the age group of 20 and 50 years will begin.

At present, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is looking for volunteers to participate in the trial.

A total of 10 medical institutes have been selected for the pan-India vaccine trial, of which two are from Mumbai. According to sources, BJ Medical College in Pune has also been selected for clinical trials.

The two Mumbai hospitals are waiting for a final nod from the state’s ethical committee to begin the trial.

“Each of the two hospitals will perform the trial on a group of 160 volunteers. These individuals have to be healthy, without any severe premedical ailments. They shouldn’t be on any immunosuppressants or undergoing other lifetime treatment,” said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, BMC.

All volunteers will be tested for Covid-19 through rapid antigen test (RAT). Also, they will be examined for Covid-19 antibodies to check if they were ever exposed to the infection in the past and recovered.

Meanwhile, the Phase one clinical trial of indigenously developed vaccine Covaxin for Covid-19 is underway in Nagpur in Maharashtra. Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech developed a vaccine for Coronavirus has been administered on 55 volunteers and nobody has reported complications so far and the company is planning to start its second phase from 10th of August.

The clinical trial of Covaxin is being conducted at Nagpur's Gillurkar hospital. The trial which began on 27th of July has completed 11 days now.

Director of the hospital Dr. Chandrashekhar Gillurkar said three milligram intra-muscular dose was given to each volunteer over a period of time and no case of reaction was reported so far. The hospital has achieved a unique feat as it ranks second in conducting clinical trials of this vaccine developed by the Hyderabad based company.

PGI Rohtak ranks first as it has conducted trials on 80 volunteers. Dr. Gillurkar said, a 20 year old youth and two others will be given a second dose of this vaccine on 10th of August. Likewise, they will be vaccinated after a gap of 28 days, 42 days, 104 days and 194th day. After each dose the blood sample of these volunteers will be collected to check the anti-bodies present in them. 

Recently, expressing concern over rising number of COVID-19 cases, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray  said the government was planning to set up sample testing laboratories in all districts.
Thackeray has inaugurated a COVID RT-PCR laboratory in Jalna city in Marathwada via video conferencing from Mumbai.

RT-PCR or the real-time polymerase chain reaction test is the most commonly used one for Covid-19.

"When coronavirus transmission began, we had only two testing labs. That number has gone up to 110 now. The state is now planning to set up such testing facilities in every district," he said.

The CM said the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic should be fought with a positive mindset.

with Story Input From - www.hindustantimes.com