As part of the phase 2 of clinical trial of Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, five more volunteers were inoculated with the Covishield shot in Pune district recently. The development holds importance as positive cases have been on the rise across the country.

Three of the volunteers were administered the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine candidate at Bharti Vidyapeeth”s Medical College and Hospital in Pune city, a senior doctor from the medical facility said.

Two more volunteers were inoculated with the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine candidate at the KEM Hospital and Research Centre at Vadu in Shirur tehsil, 30km from Pune, an official said quoted by a PTI report.

Earlier, two volunteers, aged 32 and 48, were given a shot of the ”Covishied vaccine, being manufactured by the city-based Serum Institute of India (SII), on Wednesday when the phase II clinical trial of the medicine began at Bharti Vidyapeeth”s Medical College and Hospital.

Also read: Serum-Oxford covid-19 vaccine gets DCGI nod for phase 2, 3 trials in India

“On Thursday afternoon, three more volunteers – two females and a male – were administered the vaccine candidate after their reports of RT-PCR test for COVID-19 and antibody test came negative,” said Dr Sunita Palkar, in-charge of the research cell at the medical college, as quoted by the report.

Meanwhile, authorities at KEM Hospital and Research Centre at Vadu said five volunteers were screened on Wednesday and reports for COVID-19 and antibody tests came negative for all of them.

“Of these five, two volunteers were given vaccine at the hospital”s Vadhu facility on Thursday,” said a senior official from KEM Hospital.

SII, the world”s largest vaccine maker has signed an agreement to manufacture the potential vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute of Oxford University in collaboration with British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca.

The race for a COVID-19 vaccine is hotting up even as India continues to see a daily rise in number of positive cases. India”s virus tally has sprinted past the 33 lakh-mark.

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