The phase-III human clinical trial of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University, and being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), will begin at the Sassoon General Hospital in Pune next week.
Dean of the state-run Sassoon General Hospital Dr Muralidhar Tambe told this to PTI on Saturday.
"The phase-III trial of "Covishield" vaccine will begin at Sassoon hospital from next week. It is likely to start on Monday. Some volunteers have already come forward for the trial. Around 150 to 200 volunteers will be administered the vaccine candidate dose," he said.
"From Saturday, the hospital started enrolling volunteers for the trial. Those who are willing to volunteer for the vaccination should contact the hospital," he said.
Under phase-II, trials were conducted at Bharti Vidyapeeth Medical College and also KEM Hospital in the city.
India's COVID-19 case tally crossed the 53-lakh mark with a spike of 93,337 new cases in last 24 hours, data released by the Health Ministry this morning showed. The total number of confirmed cases now stands at 53,08,015 including 10,13,964 active cases. The country also witnessed 1,247 deaths during the 24-hour period, it said.
With record 95,885 recoveries, India has overtaken the United States of America to record the highest coronavirus recoveries in the world, the Health Ministry tweeted. According to the latest Health Ministry data, more than 42 lakh people have beaten COVID-19 in the country till now. Some 41 lakh people have recovered in the US.