Before the Oxford vaccine trial was halted, both KEM and Nair hospitals had a target of conducting trials on 160 candidates each. But after the former was resumed last month, as a precautionary measure, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) decided to reduce the number of candidates to 100 for both the hospitals. Having completed the first round of administering the first dose, senior civic officials said that they recently approached the ICMR to add more candidates for the trial and are awaiting their approval.

Nair hospital dean Dr Ramesh Bharmal said that the idea of increasing the number of participants was initiated by the Serum Institute of India (SII). "They wanted us to add 25 candidates more and approached us a week ago. We have started screening people for it and we can handle more if needed," said Dr Bharmal.