Bengal school teacher who volunteered for COVID-19 vaccine trial doing well after first phase

It was an Independence Day with a difference for a 30-year-old primary school teacher from Durgapurin West Bengal’s Paschim Bardhman district. Chiranjit Dhibar had volunteered for the clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin.
The clinical trial of the vaccine is being conducted by ICMR and a pharma company and the school teacher seems to be doing reasonably well after the first few injection shots. The first 0.5 ml dosage of the vaccine was administered on the 29th of July and the second dose of 0.5 ml was administered on 12th August. This is part of the first phase of trial.
While Dhibar did complain of fever, headache and slight pain after the second dosage, these are considered normal, and overall he is feeling fine. Dhibar is at the SUM hospital in Bhubaneshwar.
Dhibar who is an RSS worker, had reached out to ICMR for the trial in April and in the first week of July, he finally got a call to participate in the vaccine trial. A full body screening was done on Dhibar on the 25th of July where he was declared fit to participate in the trial.
Dr. Venkat Rao, the principal investigator of the trial process had given Dhibar a call to be part of the vaccine. He is a professor in the Community Medicine department of SUM hospital. According to Dr. Rao, a lot of people had shown enthusiasm when it came to being a part of the trial.
The school teacher is under observation and only after 28 days since his he first received the vaccine – which is on the 26th of August – will he be allowed to go home. This is after taking blood samples to check whether he has developed antibodies. On the 104th and 194th day, Dhibar has to go for a check-up again.
For now, there are periodic check-ups and blood samples taken to monitor the health parameters of Dhibar. The school teacher for his part, is hopeful he will succeed in his endeavour and come back to Durgapur to make his family and school proud.

Read Also

Vistara likely to start flights from India to UK, Germany, France