Days after jab, Vij tests positive; took only one dose, says Centre

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh/New Delhi, Dec 5

Days after he was administered a Covid vaccine, Haryana Home and Health Minister Anil Vij tested positive for Covid-19 today.

Vij tweeted he had tested positive for Covid and was admitted to the Civil Hospital, Ambala Cantt.

In response, the Union Health Ministry and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, which is developing Covaxin in collaboration with the ICMR, said Vij testing positive was not a marker of the vaccine’s efficacy. They said Covaxin, one of India’s two indigenous Covid vaccines, was a two-dose regimen and Vij had received only one shot so far as a trial participant in Haryana. “The anti bodies against the infection build up in a human being only after a specific number of days pass after the second dose of the vaccine is taken. Since this is a two dose vaccine. The minister in question has taken only one dose of the vaccine,” a Health Ministry official said.

Politicians’ participation allays vaccine fear: ICMR

• ICMR chief Balram Bhargava says politicians' participation in vaccine trial helps in allaying the fear from people’s mind.
• Anybody, either in the vaccine arm or in the placebo arm, can acquire infection. An individual's infection status does not determine vaccine efficacy at population level.

On November 20, he was given a shot of Bharat Biotech’s vaccine Covaxin as a volunteer and the second dose was to be given on December 18.. Vij (67) has urged all those who came in contact with him recently to get tested.

On November 29, Vij met Panipat MLA Pramod Vij, who tested positive on Tuesday. Sources said Vij was unwell for the past two days, but his Covid-positive status was known only this morning.

A delegation of the JJP had met Vij yesterday to demand withdrawal of criminal cases against farmers. The delegation included Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala’s younger brother Digvijay Chautala and JJP’s state president Nishan Singh. Yog Guru Ramdev also met Vij at his office on December 1.

Dr Dhruv Chaudhary, nodal officer of the state for Covid-19 and Head of Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Unit at the PGIMS, Rohtak, who had been leading Covaxin trials, said it was not yet known whether Vij received a vaccine or placebo, as shots for volunteers were selected by computer randomly.

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