The COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus has been one of the worst Pandemic situations that humankind has ever witnessed! The loss of lives and livelihoods due to this deadly Virus, had almost brought life to a standstill across the world over! Many teams of scientists & researchers have been racing against time to come up with a vaccine or cure for this deadly virus and some of them are moving closer to their goal! Recently, it was announced that Bharat Biotech - a Hyderabad based company, had developed a vaccine for COVID-19, called COVAXIN! Then, there came an announcement that the first phase of the human trials of this COVAXIN would happen across 12 institutions in India!

Now, it has been announced that the first phase of the human trials of COVAXIN have begun today and the SRM Medical Hospital in Chennai, is one of the institutions which is participating in this! This information was revealed by Dr. Satyajit Mohapatra, the principal investigator for clinical trials at this hospital. Covaxin has been developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology! An earlier statement on Bharat Biotech's website revealed that their vaccine had received the Drug Controller General of India's (DCGI) approval for Phase-1 & 2 of human clinical trials!

Earlier this month, the ICMR had sent a circular to all the institutions advising them to fast-track all the clinical trial approvals and ensure subject enrollment was initiated no later than July 7th, as it wanted to launch the vaccine for public use by August 15th! The SRM Research Centre had also earlier been involved in clinical trials for the Rotavirus Vaccine, which was administered for protection against rotavirus infections, which were the cause of diseases like diarrhoea. SRM was also involved in the trials for Pentavalent vaccine, which is administered to children for protection against Hepatitis B, Tetanus, Pertuiss and Diptheria! It would be great news for everybody if these trials yield the necessary results and we are able to obtain a vaccine for the deadly Corona Virus!