First dose of Oxford Covid-19 vaccine administered to 3 people at PGIMER

There will be a monitoring of 28 days of the three persons, and the authorities at PGIMER will remain in constant touch with the volunteers, who also have been asked to note down every detail of their well-being, and report to PGIMER in case of fever or any other symptoms. A dose of 0.5 ml of the vaccine will be given again after 28 days, following which blood samples will be taken and volunteers will then be monitored for six months.

The minimum age for volunteers is 18 years, and the volunteers should be healthy adults, with no co-morbidity and must not have contracted Covid-19. The selection is done after an applicant tests negative for the disease and their family members are also Covid-19 negative. There is no upper age that has been fixed, as the vaccine creates different antibodies in varied age groups, and the formation of antibodies is one of the factors that will be studied in the candidates, who will be given doses in small batches of 10.

PGIMER was approved by the ICMR as a site for conducting concurrent Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trial of the Oxford Covid vaccine, which has been developed in association with AstraZeneca. In India, the vaccine will be marketed by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) as Covishield. Sponsored by SII and co-sponsored by ICMR, participation in the vaccine trial is on voluntary basis.