Third phase of Covishield vaccine trials begins at Pune’s Sassoon hospital
2,580 fresh Covid cases, 42 deaths reported in Pune district on Monday.
Pune: Government’s Sassoon General Hospital (SGH) has initiated the crucial third phase of trials for Covishield vaccine manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) at a time when the district reports 2,580 new cases of Covid-19 and 40 deaths due to the infection. Rural Pune has become a sore spot as it reported 20 deaths in 24 hours, the same as Pune city.
The hospital had invited volunteers to participate in the trials which will determine the safety of the vaccine and the future course of action. The first such trial had taken place in Pune’s Bharati hospital, which was also the first such trial of the vaccine in the country. The phase-III human clinical trial of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University is being manufactured by SII.
Dr Murlidhar Tambe, dean of the hospital said, “Only seven persons were called for personal visit and screened. Their samples for RT-PCR and antibodies are collected and lab results will be available tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. After which they will be vaccinated.” Both the results have to be negative for the volunteer to be eligible for the trial.
On Monday, the district reported 2,580 new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours and 42 people were declared dead due to the infection, as per the state health department.
Currently, Pune district has a total of over 2.63 lakh Covid cases, out of which 1.95 lakh have recovered, 5,306 have been declared dead due to the infection and 62,758 are active cases.
Pune city reported 1,170 new cases taking the total count to 142,851 and 20 deaths taking the death toll to 3,261, while PCMC reported 612 new cases taking the final count to 68,570, and two deaths with 966 as death toll. Pune rural reported 798 new cases taking the final count to 52,294 and 20 deaths taking the death toll to 1,079, according to the state health department.
In the state, 32,007 patients were discharged on Monday taking the final count to 9,16,348 after full recovery until September 21. The recovery rate in the state is 74.84%. Also 15,738 new cases were reported in the state taking the final count to 1,224,380 on Monday. The death toll in the state is 33,409 with 344 deaths reported on Monday. Case fatality rate in the state is 2.7%. Out of the 5,912,258 laboratory samples, 1,224,380 have been tested positive (20.71%) for Covid-19 until September 21. Currently 1,858,924 people are in home quarantine and 35,517 people are in institutional quarantine.
