Coronavirus Vaccine may be available and ready next month, Chinese Scientists Say

Zheng Zhongwei, China director of the Science and Technology Development Centre of the National Health Commission (NHC) announced that the country is making progress and that a new coronovirus vaccine may be ready for emergency use next month. Zheng said that a new synthetic messenger RNA (or mRNA) nucleic acid vaccine is the leading candidate for a vaccine to combat COVID-19.

Zhongwei says country is now pressing ahead with vaccine development. In Wuhan, Ding Xiangyang, deputy secretary general of the State Council, said he was confident that the control measures would end soon but he stopped short of giving a specific date. For now, American-made drug, remdesivir, made by Gilead Sciences in California is still being used to treat Chinese taken ill with COVID-19.

Signs of progress against the coronavirus epidemic emerged in China on Friday with epicentre Hubei province reporting no new cases of infection outside the provincial capital and scientists pointing to advances in the development of vaccines and drugs, according to a report from South China Morning Post.

“Our different approaches [to vaccines] are steadily advancing and [we are] following national laws and regulations [in our development],” Zheng said. “According to our estimates, we are hopeful that in April some of the vaccines [that are being developed] will enter clinical research or they would be of use in emergency situations.”

Zhen, said China was moving full steam ahead to develop vaccines for the coronavirus, which has sickened more than 90,000 people and killed over 4,000 worldwide.