A 30-year-old primary school teacher of Durgapur, Chiranjit Dhibar has returned home from Odisha after a successful human trial of Covaxin, the Covid-19 vaccine to be manufactured by Bharat Biotech.
The human trial of phases 1 and 2 of the vaccine of Bharat Biotech have earlier received approval from DCGI.
The Covaxin has been jointly manufactured by Bharat Biotech and ICMR. The human trial has been conducted in 12 hospitals throughout the country.
Dhibar has offered himself for the human trial to ICMR and is the first person from West Bengal to be selected for the first phase of human trial. Dr. Samiran Panda from ICMR called him and told him that he will be admitted at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar for six days to complete the human trial of the Covaxin.
On Wednesday late evening, Dhibar returned home at Shibaji Road in A–Zone of Durgapur Steel township. On 24 July, he went to Kalinga Nagar in Bhubaneswar after getting the call for human trial. Next day, medical tests were conducted. “I am feeling completely well. There, I had to undergo several health checkups and tests before being administered the first phase of the vaccine into my body,” he said. The first phase was administered on 29 July and the second phase on 12 August. He has taken the doses of first two phases of the Covaxin human trial and will be called by ICMR again for the third phase and report any health problems.
After blood test on 26 August, he has been released. Friends, neighbours and also local people of Durgapur gathered in his house to congratulate him and know his experiences on a day when the total number of Covid-19 positive cases crossed 75,000mark in a single day in the country and death toll over 1,000.