New Delhi, August 27: Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII) on Thursday requested media to refrain from reporting on interim data coming in about patients on Covishield clinical trials. Taking to Twitter,  Poonawalla urged people to respect the trial process and stay patient for two months. He assured that relevant data on Covishield clinical trials will be published soon.

"I would kindly request the media to refrain, from reporting on interim data coming in about patients on the SII-Covishield clinical trials. Let us not bias the process. Let us respect the process and stay patient for two months, all the relevant data will be published soon", Poonawalla tweeted. COVID-19 Vaccine Update: 'Covishield' of Oxford-Astrazeneca and Serum Institute Possibly India's 1st Shot, Release Likely by 2020-End.

Here's the tweet:

In India, the Phase II clinical trial of the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine, Covishield, began on Wednesday. The first dose was given to two males, aged 28 and 48, in Pune's Bharti Vidyapeeth's Medical College and Hospital. In India, a total of 25 volunteers will be given the dosage in the coming days and a total of 100 volunteers will be enrolled throughout India. COVID-19 Vaccine 'Covishield' to be Available in 73 Days? Serum Institute of India Calls Media Reports False and Conjectural.

Medical Director of the medical college Dr Sanjay Lalwani was quoted by IANS saying that two volunteers were given 0.5 ml of the vaccine, observed for half an hour to see if they get any local site reaction or systemic reaction. "After half an hour, they were sent home and given an emergency helpline number. They will be observed for seven days", he added.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 27, 2020 02:22 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).