The All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) Ethics Committee approved for a human clinical trial of the COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin following which the hospital will start testing on healthy volunteers from Monday onwards.

AIIMS-Delhi is among the 12 places selected by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting phase I and II human trials of Covaxin. In phase I, the vaccine would be tested on 375 volunteers and a maximum of 100 of them would be from AIIMS.

" Healthy volunteers having no comorbid conditions and without a history of COVID-19, aged more than 18 years and less than 55 years, would be eligible to participate in the randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial," Dr Sanjay Rai, Professor at the Centre for Community Medicine at AIIMS said.

COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin was developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the ICMR and the National Institute of Virology. It received approval for human clinical trials from the Drugs Controller General of India.