BUENOS AIRES (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th June, 2020) Brazil, which ranks second in the world in terms of COVID-19 cases, has started clinical trials of an experimental coronavirus vaccine, a medical source familiar with the situation told Sputnik on Wednesday.
The vaccine was developed during studies at the University of Oxford in collaboration with AstraZeneca, an UK-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company. Aside from Brazil, clinical trials of the vaccine have been held in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
"We started testing [the vaccine in humans] this week, we are talking about 2,000 volunteers," the source said.
Scientists began testing the vaccine in the city of Sao Paulo, which leads in the number of cases in the Latin American country.
Brazil has confirmed as many as 1,145,906 cases of the coronavirus infection, including more than 52,600 fatalities, since the beginning of the outbreak. The epidemiological situation in the country continues to deteriorate, as the pandemic is still on the rapid rise.
