CHANDIGARH, Dec 5: Health Minister in Haryana's BJP Government, Anil Vij, has tested positive for coronavirus and has been admitted to a hospital in Ambala Cantt.

“I have been tested Corona positive. I am admitted in Civil Hospital Ambala Cantt. All those who have come in close contact to me are advised to get themselves tested for corona,” he tweeted on Saturday morning.

Vij was administered Covaxin, the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech's vaccine for covid, as a participant in the third and final phase of the clinical trial of the vaccine, which started in Haryana on November 20. He was administered a trial dose, but it is not confirmed whether he received the placebo - and so it was a natural infection - or the vaccine candidate. During vaccine trials, an equal number of participants are given the placebo and who received what is kept a secret till the final results are released.

Secondly, as a vaccine takes some time to become effective, it cannot be confirmed whether the vaccine was a failure. Thirdly, in the rarest of rare cases, a vaccine can also cause the same infection which it is sought to prevent, through the attenuated or deactivated viral fragment the vaccine carries. Fourthly, all the coronavirus vaccines being developed are given in two doses with a gap of a few weeks. Vij received only the first dose. Only Johnson & Johnson is developing a single-dose vaccine for covid.

Vij had tweeted on November 19, "I Will be administered trial dose of Coronavirus vaccine #Covaxin a Bharat Biotech product Tomorrow at 11 am at Civil Hospital, Ambala Cantt under the expert supervision of a team of Doctors from PGI Rohtak and Health Department. I have volunteered to take the trial dose."

"The vaccine efficacy will be determined 14 days post the second dose. Covaxin has been designed to be efficacious when subjects receive both doses," Bharat Biotech said.