WhatsApp message claims that a coronavirus vaccine has been launched in India and people have to register for it by downloading a ‘Vaccine App.’ The fact checks wing of the Government’s Press Information Bureau has refuted such claims. There is no such vaccine for coronavirus in the country yet. PIB fact Check, in a tweet, wrote A WhatsApp forward is claiming that a ‘Corona Vaccine has been launched in India and people have to register for it by downloading a Vaccine App. This claim is fake. No COVID-19 vaccine has been launched in the country yet.
Meanwhile, the third phase of the trial of Covaxin, a potential vaccine against COVID-19, began in India. Covaxin is being developed indigenously by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Bharat Biotech had on Monday said the Phase 3 trial of Covaxin will involve 26,000 volunteers across 25 centers.
It is the largest clinical trial conducted for a COVID-19 vaccine in India. This is India’s first Phase 3 efficacy study for a COVID-19 vaccine, and the largest Phase 3 efficacy trial ever conducted. Meanwhile, India’s Covid-19 caseload went past 89 lakh, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease crossed 83 lakh pushing the national recovery rate to 93.52 percent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. The total coronavirus cases mounted to 8,912,907 with 38,617 infections being reported in a day while the death toll climbed to 130,993 with 474 new fatalities, the data showed. The Press Information Bureau launched this fact-checking arm in December 2019, to curb misinformation and fake news prevalent on the internet. It claimed that its objective was to identify misinformation related to the government’s policies and schemes that are circulating on various social media platforms. The government has time and again, urged people not to share such unconfirmed reports and trust only reliable sources.
