Chennai, Jul 15 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu government has allowed a pilot project to study if the bacille calmette-guerin (BCG) vaccine will help reduce the mortality rate among elderly Covid-19 patients, according to said Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar, here on Wednesday.

The National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis will start the pilot programme.

According to him, the BCG vaccine will be administered on a trial basis to people in the 60-95 age group. The programme was aimed at reducing the Covid-19 mortality rate among them, he said.

Vijayabaskar said the BCG vaccine was found to boost innate immunity, which could lower morbidity and mortality rates. The BCG vaccine could reduce the severity of Covid-19, avoid hospitalisation and mortality rate, he added.

Since no medicine was available for Covid-19 and also due to other positive factors, the Tamil Nadu government accorded the permission for the study when the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) approached it, Vijayabaskar said.

Senior citizens with comorbities, like hypertension and diabetes, are high-risk Covid-19 patients.