December 13, 2020 8:49:55 pm
Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij, who tested positive for Covid-19 on December 5, was transferred to the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Rohtak from Ambala civil hospital. (Archive)
Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij, who tested positive for Covid-19 on December 5, was transferred to the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Rohtak from Ambala civil hospital. He had complained of discomfort on Saturday night.
Ambala’s civil surgeon, Dr. Kuldeep Singh, said: “A team of doctors at the Rohtak hospital regularly monitored his condition.”
Vij was the first volunteer at Haryana to receive a trial injection of two doses of the indigenous Covid-19 Covaxin vaccine. It was not clear whether he received the placebo or the vaccine. A team of doctors from the Rohtak PGIMS administered the dose on 20 November at the Ambala Cantonment Civil Hospital, Vij constituency.
Vij had not yet received the second dose, but tested positive within 14 days of the first dose. Bharat Biotech had said at the time that clinical trials for the vaccine were based on a two-dose schedule, 28 days apart. He added that the vaccine’s effectiveness would only be determined two weeks after the second dose.
“Antibodies against infection build up in a human only after a specific number of days after the second dose of the vaccine is taken. This is a two dose vaccine. The minister in question has taken only one dose of the vaccine, ”the Union Health Ministry said in a statement issued after Vij tested positive.
In announcing that he had tested positive for Covid-19, Vij had said that before testing positive, he had visited Panipat where he spent a few hours with another BJP leader who had tested positive for Covid-19.
The 67-year-old leader is also diabetic and had recently recovered from major surgery after sustaining a fractured femur.
Several of Haryana’s politicians, including Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Senior Deputy Minister Dushyant Chautala, INLD Chief Om Prakash Chautala, Member of Congress Rajya Sabha, Deepender Hooda, as well as various members of Parliament and MLA have given previously positive for Covid-19.
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