Chandigarh: All government and private schools in Haryana will remain closed till 30 November in view of COVID-19 situation, the state government said on Friday.
“Amid the rising coronavirus cases across the state, all government and private schools in Haryana will remain closed till 30 November,” the state government’s release said. The state has over 2 lakh confirmed coronavirus cases. Haryana on Thursday reported 2,212 fresh COVID-19 cases, pushing the caseload to 2,09,251, while 20 more fatalities took the death toll to 2,113.
Meanwhile, Centre has rushed four high-level teams to Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Manipur to visit the districts reporting high number of COVID cases and support State’s efforts. Centre is also contemplating about sending teams to other States/Union Territories reporting a rise in cases, said Central Government.
Earlier today, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij was administered a trial dose of Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine ‘Covaxin’ at a hospital in Ambala. He had offered to be the first volunteer for the third phase trial of Covaxin, which started in the state on Friday.
In October, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) gave permission to Bharat Biotech for conducting Phase-III clinical trial for Covaxin.
According to the Subject Expert Committee (SEC), on 5 October, the firm presented their data from the phase I and II along with animal challenge data in two species including NHP on the Inactivated Corona Virus Vaccine (BBV152) along with the proposal to conduct event-driven phase III clinical trial to assess the efficacy of the vaccine.
Bharat Biotech has partnered with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for a country-made COVID-19 vaccine using the virus strain isolated by ICMR’s National Institute of Virology (NIV) based in Pune.
The Phase III trials will involve 26,000 volunteers across India, the company said. Trial volunteers will receive two intramuscular injections approximately 28 days apart. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive COVAXIN™ or placebo. The trial is double-blinded, such that the investigators, the participants and the company will not be aware of who is assigned to which group.
COVAXIN has been evaluated in 1,000 subjects in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials, with “promising safety and immunogenicity data”.
Also read: Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij to be administered trial dose of Covaxin tomorrow