Vaccine developed in China shows early results

Beijing: Days after United States drugmaker Moderna announced Phase one trial of its COVID-19 vaccine has shown positive results, researchers reported that a vaccine developed in China appears to be safe and may protect people from the deadly virus.

According to a report in The New York Times, citing early-stage trial, published in online journal Lancet, those who received a single dose of the vaccine produced certain immune cells, called T cells, within two weeks while the antibodies needed for immunity peaked at 28 days after the inoculation.

The trial was conducted by researchers at several laboratories and included 108 participants aged 18-60.

According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, the number of coronavirus cases worldwide has gone up to 5,209,266.

Dr Daniel Barouch, director of vaccine research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who was not involved in the work, acknowledged that 'this is a promising data' but added that it is 'early data'.

The cell begins making a coronavirus protein; the immune system learns to recognise the protein and attack it, in theory preventing the coronavirus from ever gaining a foothold.

In these people, 'their immune systems will essentially rear up and blunt the effect of the vaccine', said Dr Kirsten Lyke, a vaccinologist at the University of Maryland who is leading another coronavirus vaccine trial.