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    HomeNewsIndiaCoronavirus vaccine update: Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij gets first India-made Covaxin shot

    Coronavirus vaccine update: Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij gets first India-made Covaxin shot

    The 67-year old senior BJP leader was administered the dose under the supervision of a team of doctors at the Civil Hospital in Ambala Cantt.

    Moneycontrol News
    November 20, 2020 / 15:27 IST

    Haryana Health Minister and BJP leader Anil Vij, who had offered to be the first volunteer in the phase three trials for Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, has been administered a trial dose on November 20.

    The 67-year old senior BJP leader was administered the dose under the supervision of a team of doctors at the Civil Hospital in Ambala Cantt.

    Ahead of the third phase trials, the Haryana Health Minister had taken to his official Twitter handle and said, "I will be administered a trial dose of Coronavirus vaccine #Covaxin a Bharat Biotech product Tomorrow at 11 am at Civil hospital, Ambala Cantt under the expert supervision of a team of doctors from PGI Rohtak and Health Department," Vij said in a tweet.

    COVID-19 Vaccine

    Frequently Asked Questions

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    How does a vaccine work?

    A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

    How many types of vaccines are there?

    There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

    What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

    Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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    Covaxin is being developed indigenously by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

    Last month, the vaccine maker said it had successfully completed interim analysis of Phase 1 and 2 trials and is initiating Phase 3 trials.

    Bharat Biotech had on Monday said the Phase 3 trial of Covaxin will involve 26,000 volunteers across 25 centres in India and is being conducted in partnership with the ICMR.

    It is the largest clinical trial conducted for a COVID-19 vaccine in India.

    This is India's first Phase 3 efficacy study for a COVID-19 vaccine, and the largest Phase 3 efficacy trial ever conducted.

    The human trial of Covaxin had begun at Rohtak's Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in July, Vij had said earlier.

    With inputs from agencies

    Moneycontrol News
    first published: Nov 20, 2020 03:27 pm

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