Coronavirus-hit South Africa has committed itself to participating in a series of vaccine trials for testing different methods and treatments for coronavirus, according to the UN World Health Organisation on Thursday.
As the first US-led trials begin, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the multinational trials are designed to generate data needed to show the most effective vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.
While the development of a vaccine could take many months, Ghebreyesus said other types of treatment might be developed much quicker.
Apart from South Africa, other countries that have confirmed that they would join the solidarity trials are Argentina, Bahrain, Canada, France, Iran, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and Thailand, the WHO boss said.
He said he was “certain (that) more countries will join the initiative” in the so-called “solidarity trial.”
WHO is organising the study in which some of the untested treatments are compared with each other during the solidarity trials, he said.
While there have been no deaths in the country, South Africa has 16 confirmed cases of the coronavirus – the highest number in Africa.
NM/jn/APA