AIIMS receives over 10,000 applications for Covaxin trials
New Delhi: With the pandemic seemingly in control and applications for Covaxin clinical trials at AIIMS having started, more than 10,000 people in the city have applied to be part of the indigenously developed vaccine trials. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also took to Twitter and warned all against any complacency.
"The situation is better than what it was last month. But please don't be complacent. This virus is very unpredictable. Stay safe and follow all precautions. We should always be prepared for the worst," the CM tweeted.
A source at AIIMS said that they had received an overwhelming amount of applications for the clinical trials, which at this point, can accommodate only 100 participants.
Delhi on Monday reported the lowest daily cases in nearly two months, taking the total tally here to 1,23,747; whereas the city added 35 deaths to its toll, taking total fatalities from the contagious disease to 3,663.
The vaccine got the Ethics Committee's nod on Saturday for human clinical trials, following which applications for Phase-I began on Monday. Since the announcement, many people had already enlisted themselves for the trial, Dr Sanjay Rai, Professor at the Centre for Community Medicine at AIIMS had said.
According to the guidelines, healthy volunteers with no comorbid conditions and without a history of COVID-19, aged more than 18 years and less than 55 years, would be eligible to participate in the randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.
India's first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine candidate Covaxin is being developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the ICMR and the National Institute of Virology (NIV).
The Delhi government said that a total of 11,470 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, of which 4,177 were RT-PCR tests and 7,293 were rapid antigen tests. The Capital has now conducted over 8.3 lakh tests since the pandemic began.
Significantly, daily recoveries on Monday were almost double that of new cases at 1,784, taking total recoveries here to 1,04,918, leaving an active case count of 15,166. A total of 8,379 patients are currently recovering in home isolation with 3,517 recuperating in hospitals. The official health bulletin showed that containment zones in the city had gone up to 696.
