The minister is admitted to the Medanta Hospital of Gurugram.
Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij, who is currently battling the COVID-19 infection, was admitted to Gurugram’s Medanta Hospital on Tuesday in critical condition, authorities said. The minister is undergoing treatment with Dr. Sushila Kataria, senior director of Medanta’s Department of Internal Medicine, sources told IANS, adding that the minister suffers from a lung infection. However, there was no official response from the hospital.
Vij was admitted to Medanta at night from the Haryana government Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) in Rohtak, where he was admitted on Saturday and had received convalescent plasma therapy. The institute had stated that Vij had moderate COVID-19 with bilateral viral pneumonia.
Sources told IANS that his family insisted on transferring him to PGIMS ‘private Gurugram facility after they discovered his health was not improving there.
Previously, he was being treated at the Ambala District Civil Hospital.
Last month, the minister received proof of the two-dose trial of Covaxin, a candidate for the indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, after he volunteered to volunteer in its phase tests. 3. He had tested positive for COVID-19 on December 5.
Vij was given the dose on November 20 at the Civil Hospital in Ambala Cantonment. His news of testing positive for COVID-19, days after receiving the vaccine dose, raised questions about the vaccine’s effectiveness among the public.
Bharat Biotech, however, maintained that clinical trials of the vaccine are based on a two-dose schedule, 28 days apart. “The efficacy of the vaccine will be determined two weeks after the second dose,” he had said. Covaxin has been designed to be protective two weeks after volunteers receive the second dose, their statement read.
The Union Ministry of Health also intervened to say that Covaxin is a two-dose vaccine and that Vij was given only the first dose fifteen days before testing positive.
“Antibodies against infection accumulate in a human being 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 ministry had said in a statement.
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