Coronavirus Latest Updates: India's COVID-19 case tally has crossed the 50-lakh mark with a spike of 90,123 new cases and 1,290 deaths - the highest the country has seen in 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said. The total number of people who have died because of the disease now stands at 80,776. The country now has a total of 50,20,359 coronavirus cases, including 9,95,933 active cases (20.08 per cent of the total caseload), the data stated.
Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) Dr VG Somani on Tuesday gave permission to Serum Institute of India to resume clinical trial of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the country while revoking its earlier order of suspending any new recruitment for phase two and three trial.
The DCGI, however, put certain conditions like taking extra care during screening, providing additional information in informed consent and close monitoring for adverse events during follow-up of the study which have to be "scrupulously" followed by Serum Institute of India (SII).
The DCGI had on September 11 directed Serum Institute of India to suspend any new recruitment in the phase two and three clinical trial of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine candidate till further orders in the backdrop of pharma giant AstraZeneca pausing the clinical trials in other countries because of "an unexplained illness" in a participant in the study.
