Chinese Officials: Coronavirus Vaccine Could be Ready by April

Chinese officials have said that a coronavirus vaccine will be ready by the end of April for clinical trials and emergency cases.

The South China Morning Post has reported that eight institutes are working on five different approaches, creating a remedy to fight the novel coronavirus that emerged in December of last year in Wuhan.

“According to our estimates, we are hopeful that in April some of the vaccines will enter clinical research or be of use in emergency situations,” Zheng Zhongwei, director of the National Health Commission’s Science and Technology Development Center, said on Friday morning.

“While it would take at least 12 to 18 months to ensure the vaccines are safe for the general public, under Chinese law, they can be deployed earlier for urgent use in a major public health emergency, as long as the benefits outweigh the risks,” reported the New York Post.

The coronavirus has infected over 139,000 people worldwide and killed 5,118. 70,729 have recovered.

By Nini Dakhundaridze