China embarks on clinical trial for virus vaccine

BEIJING: China has started the first phase of a clinical trial for a novel coronavirus vaccine, records show, as the world´s scientists race to find a way to combat the deadly pathogen.

It comes after US health officials said last week they had started a trial to evaluate a possible vaccine in Seattle.The Chinese effort began on March 16 — the same day as the US announcement — and is expected to continue until the end of the year, according to a filing in the country´s Clinical Trial Registry, dated March 17.

“Volunteers of the COVID-19 phase one trial have already started receiving the vaccine,” a staff member involved in the government-funded project told AFP on Sunday.The 108 participants, aged between 18 and 60, will be tested in three groups and given different dosages. They are all residents of the central city of Wuhan — where the new coronavirus first emerged late last year.

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages and governments step up protection measures, pharmaceutical companies and research labs around the world are working at full tilt.There are currently no approved vaccines or medication for the new disease, which has killed more than 13,000 people worldwide so far. The vaccine trial announcements come amid an escalating feud between the US and China over the pandemic, with President Donald Trump enraging Beijing by speaking of the “Chinese virus”.

China´s nationalistic Global Times published an opinion piece last week noting “the development of a vaccine is a battle that China cannot afford to lose”.But the quest is expected to take time — the US candidate vaccine may take another year to 18 months before becoming available.

An antiviral treatment called remdesivir, made by US-based Gilead Sciences, is already in the final stages of clinical trials in Asia and doctors in China have reported it has proven effective in fighting the disease.But only randomised trials will allow scientists to know for sure if it really helps or whether patients would have recovered without it.

Millions of face masks from China land in Czech Republic: A giant cargo plane carrying over 100 tons of medical material from China, including million of face masks, has landed at a Czech airport, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

The Czech Republic, which by Sunday had 1,047 confirmed coronavirus cases including six cured patients and no deaths, has been grappling with a shortage of face masks and disinfectants. The shortage has led thousands of Czechs to make face masks at home as the state banned people from leaving home without their nose and mouth covered.

The An-124 Ruslan plane, which also carried respirators from Shenzhen landed before midnight Saturday in the central city of Pardubice as part of NATO´s SALIS (Strategic Airlift International Solution) programme.

“We are planning another two (Ruslan) flights this month,” Czech Defence Minister Lubomir Metnar said in a statement, adding they could take place on Tuesday and then at the end of March. Czech media said the plane carried five million face masks, two million respirators and other medical material weighing 106 tons in total, while a China Eastern plane that landed in Prague an hour later carried seven million face masks.