China Starts Clinical Trials of COVID-19 Vaccine - Reports

BEIJING (Sputnik) - China has started clinical trials to test the safety and effectiveness of newly developed vaccines for the coronavirus disease, media reported on Saturday, adding that more than 100 volunteers are participating in the testing.

According to the 21 Shiji Jingji Baodao newspaper, 108 volunteers were divided into three groups of 36 persons each. The first group will receive a low dose of the developed vaccine, the second group will get a medium dose and the last group a high dose. The trials started on March 16 and will continue until the end of December.

The first phase of trials had already begun, and the vaccine had been administered to a number of volunteers, the media said. After getting the vaccine, the participants will be quarantined for 14 days and placed under constant medical supervision. Upon lifting the quarantine, they will be regularly examined for six months to detect any side effects and see whether specific antibodies against the virus' spike protein are formed in volunteers' bodies.

On Monday, the US National Institutes of Health also announced the start of a clinical trial for a vaccine at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. According to a press release, 45 healthy adult volunteers aged 18 to 55 years will be recruited for the trial.

The World Health Organisation declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. More than 280,000 people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 11,800 fatalities.