New coronavirus vaccine trials start in Brazil

Brazilian health authorities on Tuesday started a three-month test for a coronavirus vaccine produced by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac.

Dimas Covas, president of the Butantan Institute coordinating the study, said at a news conference that if the vaccine proves safe and effective, Brazil would receive 120 million doses from China at the beginning of next year.

It's one of nearly two dozen potential vaccines that are in various stages of human testing worldwide, and one of a handful that are entering late-stage testing to prove effectiveness.

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

The federal Ministry of Health on Monday reported 632 additional deaths from COVID-19 and 20,257 newly confirmed infections.

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 the University of Oxford 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.

Half of the volunteers will receive two doses of vaccine starting this week, while the other half will receive two doses of a placebo.