Good news: There's progress on trials of two possible coronavirus vaccines

The world has been fighting against the Coronavirus pandemic for some weeks now, the numbers vary depending on the country we focus on, but there's something in common in every place on Earth: people are waiting for the vaccine.

Many of the experts have assured that at least until a year from now, there will be no treatment for this virus and that there will be a slowdown in obtaining it in some countries due to the strong demand there will be. In short, it doesn't look like we are going to be going back to normal anytime soon.

But what if go back to the life we led before the pandemic?  China has already begun human clinical trials with two possible candidates for SARS-CoV-2, the cause of the coronavirus, according to local press reports last Tuesday. These two vaccines remain in a dormant state, that is, consisting of microorganisms that have been destroyed by physical or chemical processes.

2 possible solutions

As stated by Nius, the first solution for COVID-19 was developed by the Institute of Virology in Wuhan (the city where the first cases of coronavirus were diagnosed) with the collaboration of Sinopharm, a branch in the same city. Sinopharm obtained the license last Sunday and began to implement clinical trials.

The second solution has been the result of the work of different companies, with Sinovac Research & Development at the lead. This company is a subsidiary of Sinovac Biotech, which has also worked on a vaccine against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003.

A first sample

According to the specialized economic publication Caixin, Sinopharm's trials -which have the economic support of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China- will be administered to 1,396 volunteers in the province of Henan (central-east of the Asian country) during its first two phases where they are expected to last until November 10, 2021.

In mid-March, Chinese authorities approved the start of clinical trials of another coronavirus vaccine developed by the Military Academy of Sciences.

To date, according to official data, 3,341 people have died in China as a result of COVID-19 among the 82,249 who were diagnosed. Of these, 77,738 patients have successfully overcome the virus.

[This is a translation of the original article "Buenas noticias: Así avanzan los ensayos de 2 posibles vacunas contra el coronavirus" published in espanadiario.net]