NEWS DESK: All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-Delhi Director Randeep Guleria on Monday said that there is no evidence of community transmission of COVID-19 at the national level. However, he admitted that there is a surge in cases at the local level, typically known as the hotspots.
Addressing the media, he said, “There are hotspots in cities where there is a spike of cases. Local community transmission in those areas is likely happening. There is no such evidence on the nation-wide community transmission.”
He added that many cities have hit the peak of positive cases reported. “In case of Delhi, it is doing significantly well after reaching the peak in cases,” he said. Delhi had a massive spike in cases last month which has seen a dip in the last two weeks. “There are still hotspots but the city has reported a downtrend in cases,” he added.
AIIMS Delhi on Monday started with the human clinical trial of indigenously developed novel coronavirus vaccine, COVAXIN. AIIMS Delhi is one of the 12 medical facilities across India where the vaccine trial will be conducted. The human trail which started on Monday would be conducted in three phases. The first phase would include 375 volunteers aged between 18-55 with no co-morbidity.
“A total of 1125 samples have been collected of which 375 will be studied in the first phase and in the second phase 750 people will be recruited between 12-65 years,” said Guleria. According to the statement, all the 1125 volunteers would be injected with inactivated SARS-CoV-2 to ensure that their body produces antibodies to fight the virus.
Last week, the human vaccine trial for COVAXIN, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the National Institute of Virology (NIV) has already started in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna and Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak.
Speaking of the results for the vaccine, medical experts say that there is no concrete evidence on when the vaccine would get ready. However, sources have reported that the first report on the phase 1 trial would be out in the next three to four months. Adding to this, Guleria said, “We are knowing new things about this virus every day.”
On Sunday, India saw a record single-day spike in new coronavirus cases jumping to 40,425 with the tally reaching 11,18,043 total positive cases. At present, there are 3,90,459 active cases across the country with a total of 27,497 fatalities.