China’s COVID-19 vaccine effective in late-stage trials in Brazil: report

Late-stage trials in Brazil for China’s Sinovac Biotech COVID-19 vaccine have shown promising results, positioning it for public use, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The vaccine, CoronaVac, has reached phase three trials in Brazil, the first country to complete the third trial stage for Sinovac’s vaccine, according to the newspaper. The experimental vaccine is also being tested in Indonesia and Turkey.

Sources involved in the vaccine’s development told the Journal that the results of the trial in Brazil indicate Sinovac’s vaccine is above the 50 percent threshold that the scientific community has deemed necessary for sufficient protection against the virus.

João Doria, governor of São Paulo, has said the plan is to vaccinate all of São Paulo by the end of July, a year faster than what the Brazilian federal government has promised. São Paulo accounts for around a fifth of the country’s population.

In October, Sinovac reported that 10,000 Beijing residents had already been injected with its vaccine.

News of promising results from Sinovac follow similar reports regarding another possible vaccine, from the Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm.

The United Arab Emirates reported earlier this month that its trial of Sinopharm’s vaccine candidate indicated it was 86 percent effective at preventing the coronavirus and 100 percent effective at preventing moderate and severe cases of COVID-19. The United Arab Emirates approved Sinopharm’s vaccine on Dec. 10, becoming the first government to do so.