New coronavirus vaccine trials start in Brazil

Sao Paulo: Brazilian health authorities on Tuesday were starting a three-month test of a coronavirus vaccine produced by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac — one of a handful around the world that are entering late-stage testing to prove effectiveness.

Dimas Covas, president of the Butantan Institute coordinating the study, said at a press conference that if the vaccine proves safe and effective, Brazil would receive 120 million doses from China at the beginning of next year, which will allow 30 million Brazilians to be vaccinated.

It's one of nearly two dozen potential vaccines that are in various stages of human testing worldwide.

Brazil's soaring COVID-19 outbreak makes it useful for testing whether a potential vaccine works in widespread presence of the new coronavirus.

The federal Ministry of Health said Monday that Brazil has now recorded more than 2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 80,120 deaths.

Brazil is also helping test a coronavirus vaccine produced in a partnership between Oxford University and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, and federal authorities on Tuesday authorized tests of a third vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech.

The Sinovac tests on 9,000 volunteers, all health professionals, in six Brazilian states, are being coordinated by Butantan, a Sao Paulo state scientific institute that has been producing vaccines for over a century.