Mumbai Hospital begins trial of Covishield vaccine

Mumbai: The civic-run King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital in Mumbai on Wednesday began phase II and III trials of the Oxford Covishield vaccine for Covid-19, an official said.

The hospital, on Tuesday got the approval of the Maharashtra ethics committee for conducting the vaccine trials.

The medical facility will be conducting the trials on 100 volunteers, he said.

The city-based B Y L Nair Hospital, another facility run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, has also received approval for conducting trials of the vaccine.

As part of the trials, volunteers who are found negative for coronavirus in both RT-PCR and antigen tests will be given the vaccine, they said.