Indian Covid-19 vaccine candidate 'Covaxin' reaches Gujarat hospital for trial

Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel on Wednesday said that the government has received a consignment of the Indian Covid-19 vaccine candidate Covaxin, developed by Bharat Biotech.

He said that experts from the central government have also arrived to train the local doctors for conducting trials on healthy youths who will be vaccinated twice in a month under constant monitoring to check the results.

Patel, who is also the health minister, said that this vaccine has been indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research. He said that 500 vaccines have been stored at the cold storage facility of civil hospital at Sola.

Senior health officials said that civil hospital in Sola is one of the 130 centres across the country where phase-III of clinical trial of Covaxin are being conducted. Earlier, BJP parliamentarian, Ahmedabad-West, Kirit Solanki had also tweeted that vaccine has arrived at the civil hospital and trial will be conducted on 1,000 youth volunteers.

Meanwhile, Gujarat reported 1,540 new positive cases in the past 24 hours, one of the highest single-day spike in recent months, taking the state's tally to 2,01,949. The death toll also rose to 3,905 with 14 more deaths in the state.