Oxford vaccine crucial third phase trials in India from Aug

By Dec, doses will be available for vulnerable lot

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 21

After Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate appeared to be safe in the first and second phase 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.

Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawala today said the first and second phases of human trials had established the safety of the vaccine and showed that it did not cause any major side effects. He said phase-3 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 human 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.

BOX

No community transmission: Govt

“There is no community transmission in India. We only have clusters and large local outbreaks,”

Rakesh Bhushan, OSD, Health Ministry