BEIJING, March 5. /TASS/. Chinese researches have begun animal testing of six types of vaccines against novel coronavirus, head of the Institute of Laboratory Animal Science of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Qin Chuan informed.
"Currently, the Institute of Laboratory Animal Science is conducting animal testing of six vaccines," the expert is quoted by the Xina portal.
"These are the six vaccines that have been developed in our country the fastest. As far as I am aware, only our institute in cooperation with the expert group on combating the coronavirus of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has the two experimental types of animals approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology for such tests - transgenic mice and monkeys," Qin Chuan explained.
On February 21, Chinese Vice Minister of Science and Technology Xu Nanping stated that China would be able to begin clinical testing of coronavirus vaccine no earlier than in late April.
In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. According to Chinese authorities, about 80,400 people have been infected with the virus in the country. The death toll has exceeded 3,000, while about 52,000 patients have recovered. WHO declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus a global health emergency and named the virus COVID-19. Cases of coronavirus have been reported in over 70 countries, including Russia. The largest outbreaks of COVID-19 outside of China have been detected in South Korea, Iran and Italy.
According to WHO, the number of people infected with COVID-19 outside of China is nearing 12,700, with over 210 people dead.