Anil Vij undergoing plasma therapy, say doctors
PGIMS hospital in Rohtak, where Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij has been admitted has issued a statement on the minister's health. Vij's vital parameters are normal and he is undergoing convalescent plasma therapy, the Monday statement read. Vij, who is also the state's home minister, was shifted from Civil Hospital at Ambala to PGIMS on Saturday night after he complained of discomfort. The minister had last month got one shot of the two-dose trial of the COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin after he offered to be a volunteer. He had tested positive for COVID-19 on December 5.
On Monday, Vij was examined by a special medical board comprising a team of senior doctors of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), constituted by the institute's director Rohtas Yadav.
"Anil Vij was cheerful... and his vital parameters were normal," said the bulletin.
However, the minister has fever, it said.
The treatment being given to him was thoroughly reviewed by the doctors, it said.
"In view of skigram (X-ray) finding and status of the pulmonary parameters, the committee (doctors) was of the opinion that he has moderate COVID-19 with bilateral viral pneumonia," the bulletin said.
"Various options for the management were discussed... it was decided that Anil Vij shall be given one more unit of convalescent plasma today (Monday) evening and all other therapies can continue as before," it said.
The bulletin also mentioned that "the issue of any adverse development of his condition has also been discussed and conveyed to the health minister (Vij). Various therapies and their pros and cons were also discussed with him..."
The 67-year-old BJP leader had offered to be the first volunteer in the phase three trials for Covaxin, an indigenous potential vaccine being developed by Bharat Biotech against COVID-19.
He was administered the dose on November 20 at the Civil Hospital in Ambala Cantonment, about 50 km from Chandigarh.
Bharat Biotech had said that clinical trials of the vaccine are based on a two-dose schedule, given 28 days apart. The vaccine efficacy will be determined two weeks after the second dose, it said.
COVAXIN has been designed to be protective 2 weeks after volunteers receive the 2nd dose.
The Union Health Ministry had also stepped in to say that Covaxin is a two-dose anti-coronavirus vaccine and that Vij was given only the first dose a fortnight before he tested positive.
"The antibodies against the infection build up in a human being only after a specific number of days pass 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.
Vij had earlier said that he had gone to Panipat a few days prior to testing positive for coronavirus where he spent 2-3 hours with a BJP leader, who too had tested positive for COVID-19.
