Covid-19: Oxford vaccine on hold after 1 taken ill

Tribune News Service/ PTI

New Delhi/London, September 9

The human trials of one of the most promising Covid-19 vaccine candidates, being developed by the University of Oxford, has been put on hold after a UK participant had an adverse reaction to it.

• Also read: 4 part of BCG vaccine trial infected

AstraZeneca, the biopharmaceutical giant in a tie-up with the university to produce the vaccine, described the pause as a “routine” one following what was “an unexplained illness”.

The trials had moved into Phase III after successful Phase I and II testing had raised worldwide hopes that it would be ready by early next year as results showed that it produced a positive immune response.

Meanwhile, the health authorities in India today said some high Covid-19 burden states were missing out positive patients by failing to run the gold standard RTPCR tests on symptomatic people found negative in rapid antigen test results.

Central teams deputed in 10 states — including Punjab — witnessing recent surges have reviewed local situations and in their feedback to the Health Ministry said that many states were not conducting RTPCR on symptomatic people who had tested negative in rapid antigen tests.

“The ICMR protocol on testing is very clear and states have been accordingly guided. RTPCR tests are a must to confirm the results of symptomatic persons found negative in rapid antigen tests. If this is not done, states can miss out patients. We are telling states to chase the virus and this we can only do by catching every missing patient,” Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said today, attributing missing cases to the ongoing burden of disease.

Meanwhile, the cases today reached 43,70,128 with 89,706 new infections over 24 hours. A record 74,894 recoveries were made, taking the total recoveries to 33,98,844 and the recovery rate to 77.77 per cent.

Post notice, India may suspend trials too

Following the suspension of Oxford vaccine trials, the DCGI issued a show-cause notice to the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII). Indicating that the trials may be suspended, SII CEO Adar Poonawala, responded: “If DCGI has any safety concerns, we will adhere to its instructions.” TNS