Covishield vaccine Phase-3 trials in India from next month

New Delhi, July 21

After Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate, which is now being called Covishield, appeared to be safe in the first and second phases of human trials in the UK, Indian manufacturer of the vaccine Serum Institute today said the decisive third phase of the trials would start in India from August.

No community transmission: Govt

There is no community transmission in India. We only have clusters and large local outbreaks. Rakesh Bhushan, OSD, Health Ministry

Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawala today said the first and second phases of trials had established the safety of the vaccine. The third phase would be crucial as it would show how much protection the vaccine would give against Covid-19. Poonawala said Serum Institute would start the third phase of trials for the Oxford vaccine in August and conclude it by October-November.

He said by December this year and the first quarter of 2021, a few million doses of the vaccine would be available for India to protect the most vulnerable people.

Meanwhile, the government today said the national goal was to bring the Covid mortality rate below 1 per cent and the positivity rate to less than 5 per cent.

The current Covid positive rate in India is 8.07 per cent with total cases climbing to 11,55,191 after 37,148 new infections recorded in a day. The recoveries have now risen to 7, 24,577 as against 4,02,529 active cases. The toll has mounted to 28,084 with 587 deaths in a day. The recovery rate is now 62.72 per cent.

The government today said the cases per million in India were 837, among the lowest globally, and deaths per million were 20.4 as against the global average of 77. India’s case fatality rate had fallen to 2.43 per cent from 3.36 per cent on June 17. “This rate must come down below one per cent,” said Health Ministry OSD Rakesh Bhushan.

He also said India was now doing 180 tests per day per million and 19 states were testing more than that. — TNS