China Approves Two Experimental COVID-19 Vaccines for Clinical Trials - Report

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage around the world, states are doubling efforts to speed up the release of the vaccine to combat the disease.

China has approved two experimental vaccines against COVID-19 for phase one and two clinical trials, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

These two new inactivated coronavirus vaccines were developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and a unit of Nasdaq-listed Sinovac Biotech in Beijing in conjunction with relevant scientific research institutions.

Earlier, one of the Chinese medical experts, Wang Kaili, warned that the coronavirus infection vaccine currently being developed by China is just entering the first phase of the clinical trials, and it will probably take more than a year to finish it.

Clinical trials of the first vaccine developed in China began in mid-March, with 108 volunteers taking part in them. That vaccine was developed by China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences and HK-listed biotech firm CanSino Bio.

COVID-19 originated in China's Wuhan last December, but the epicentre of the disease later shifted to Europe and now the United States has registered the highest number of coronavirus infections.