With the number of daily reported infections in China now in single figures, vaccine developers could struggle to complete the final phase of trials as they will have not enough cases to draw comparisons with.
China is working on a plan to give some groups a Covid-19 vaccine by the end of the year even if trials are not complete by then, according to the head of the country’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The National Immunisation Programme is paying close attention and studying what groups of the population can take the shots, when to take them and what may constitute emergency use of vaccines,” Gao said on the sidelines of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing on Saturday.
Vaccination is widely seen as the only viable medical solution that can put an end to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has infected more than 5.3 million people and killed more than 340,000 worldwide. Gao acknowledged that vaccine candidates must be safe and effective, but Gao said a standard treatment may take 12 to 18 months to develop, but the fast-track vaccines could be used in emergencies or for groups with particular needs.
Gao, an immunologist and virologist who earned a doctorate at the University of Oxford and did postdoctoral research there and at Harvard University, has been personally involved in the search for the intermediary species that transmitted the coronavirus that causes the disease – which is believed to have originated in bats – to humans.
However, the animal samples tested were free from Sars-CoV-2 and the virus was only found in waste water in the market.
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