Coronavirus: Weeks after taking Covaxin trial dose, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij tests Covid-19 positive

Weeks after taking Covaxin, India’s first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine candidate, jointly developed by Bharat Biotech, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij tested positive for Coronavirus infection.

In a tweet on Saturday, Vij said, “I have been tested Corona positive. I am admitted in Civil Hospital Ambala Cantt.”

He requested people who he met recently to take the Covid test and isolate themselves to protect others from the Coronavirus infection. “All those who have come in close contact to me are advised to get themselves tested for corona,” he said in the tweet.

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.

— ANIL VIJ MINISTER HARYANA (@anilvijminister) December 5, 2020

Last month (on November 20), Vij was inoculated with a trial dose of Covaxin at the same hospital. Vij had offered himself as the “first volunteer” for the Phase 3 clinical trial of Covaxin.

It may be noted that the Phase 1 human trial of Covaxin was conducted at Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences or PGI, Rohtak in Haryana.

According to the report, like Phase 1, Covaxin’s Phase 3 human trials are said to be the largest efficacy study for any coronavirus vaccine in India. In phase 3 human trials, volunteers will be administered two intramuscular injections around 28 days apart. As many as 1,000 volunteers have enrolled and evaluated for safety and immunogenicity data during phase 1 and Phase 1 human trials of Covaxin, as per reports.