Chennai: The government has given permission to the ICMR to test BCG vaccine’s efficacy in preventing people in the age group of 60 to 95 getting infected by Coronavirus, Health Minister C Vijayabaskar said on Wednesday.
The tests starts at the National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis that comes under the ICMR, Vijaybaskar said, adding that administering BCG vaccine to elders will reduce the virility of Covid-19 and help avoid hospitalization and death.
Elderly people, diabetics and those who high blood pressure and heart ailments were more vulnerable to Covid-19 and the ECG vaccine could bring down the morbidity and mortality rates among them, an official press release said.
BCG vaccine, which was being administered to children under the National Vaccination Programme in the last 50 years, enhanced the innate immunity in people, it has been found, the release said.
