Don’t send Covaxin till trials are complete, Chhattisgarh minister tells Centre

Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singhdeo said the state government is not in position to tell the people to use Covaxin because the trials are incomplete

The Chhattisgarh government has written to the Centre urging it not to send Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for the state till it completes the phase three trials against Covid-19 and the results are made public.

Chhattisgarh health minister TS Singhdeo highlighted the steps taken by his government to check the spread of coronavirus disease Covid-19.(Twitter/TS_SinghDeo)

Chhattisgarh health minister TS Singhdeo said that this was the second letter he had written to Union home minister Amit Shah in the last one month and accused the Centre of trying to force Covaxin on the state government.

“I have urged the Centre not to send the Covaxin doses till the phase three trials of the vaccine are complete and the data of the trial has been processed,” Singhdeo said.

“They are trying to force Covaxin on us …First, the vaccine is not a compulsory programme.. It is an optional programme in any case. Secondly, the first time Centre sent the Covishield vaccine, which was absolutely fine but subsequently it sent some Covaxin along with Covishield after which I sent a letter opposing it but the Centre again sent another installment of Covaxin. Hence I sent a letter again a few days ago,” the minister said.

Claiming that the government is not in position to tell the people of Chhattisgarh to use the vaccine because the trials have not been completed yet, Singhdeo said , “Covaxin is not being given freely and given only after each individual fills a form .. When you are taking Covishield vaccine the government has not prescribed any form to be filled. This clearly indicates that phase three trials are not complete.”