New Delhi: Clinical trials of the third booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin started at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, on Monday.
The trial will be conducted on 190 participants who had already been administered Covaxin six months ago, as part of phase 2 trial before it was rolled out for mass vaccination.
“Booster dose simply means boosting the immune response after completing primary vaccination… if you feel that after some time, may be 6 months or 8 month or even after a year, that your immune response is going down and you want to boost your immunity, this may work or this may not work,” explained Dr Sanjay Rai, Principal Investigator of Covaxin trials at AIIMS, Delhi.
The volunteers, in the age group of 18 to 55 years, will be given the booster dose at nine specified sites. All participants will be monitored for six months after the third dose to ensure their safety and immunogenicity.
Around 2.07 crore doses of Bharat Biotech-manufactured Covaxin has been administered in India since January 16.
