A Chinese research organisation in joint efforts with Army has entered the second stage of clinical-trial of coronavirus vaccine, which so far has claimed nearly 184,353 lives globally.
As per the reports of news agency quoting Ministry of Science and Technology official said that China has approved three COVID-19 vaccine submissions for clinical-trials.
The latest 'adenovirus vaccine' which is going to enter clinical trial stage has been developed by a research team led by Major General Chen Wei of the Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences of the People's Liberation Army.
In late March, the first phase of clinical trial was completed and the next started on April 12.
On Sunday, the vaccine developed by the Institute of Biotechnology, Academy of Military Medical Sciences of China, entered Phase II of a human clinical trial with 500 volunteer participants.
The vaccine has been developed by genetic engineering methods which can be used to prevent diseases caused by novel coronavirus infections.
In the first phase of the vaccine clinical trial focused was laid on safety, while the second phase stresses more on its efficacy. This second phase have more participants than first and have a placebo control group.
On Thursday, volunteer recruitment for the vaccine began. China's first candidate for the virus that entered clinical human testing.
There is a global race to develop the vaccine. India's Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech lab are also developing vaccines besides firms in Australia and the UK.
Currently, there are no effective drugs for the deadly disease, although several candidate drugs are in clinical trials.
The WHO said a safe and effective vaccine would be needed to fully halt the spread of COVID-19.
"Our global connectedness means the risk of re-introduction and resurgence of COVID-19 will continue," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing from Geneva, stressing that "ultimately, the development and delivery of a safe and effective vaccine will be needed to fully interrupt transmission."
Scientists say China may have a kick start on the development of the vaccine as it was the first to map out the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus after it surfaced in Wuhan city in December last year.
China subsequently shared the genome sequence with the WHO, the US and other countries, setting off the race to develop the vaccine.