Local residents get COVID-19 test in Brasilia, Brazil, May 26, 2020. (Photo by Lucio Tavora/Xinhua)
The vaccine has tested effective on laboratory monkeys and is currently being administered to 10,000 volunteers in the United Kingdom.
RIO DE JANEIRO, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian government has authorized testing in the country for a COVID-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford, officials said on Wednesday.
The National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) said that the vaccine is one of the pioneers in the fight against the virus, and Brazil will be the first country outside the United Kingdom where its efficacy will be tested.
The study is supported by the Brazilian Ministry of Health and will be performed on volunteers who have not been previously infected with the virus, and the trial will be administered under the direction of Brazilian health authorities and research institutions.
The vaccine has tested effective on laboratory monkeys and is currently being administered to 10,000 volunteers in the United Kingdom. To prove its effectiveness, scientists decided to expand testing to Brazil, which comes second on a global tally of coronavirus cases after the United States.
The number of people who have died of COVID-19 in Brazil has increased by record 1,349 to 32,548 within the past 24 hours, the national Health Ministry said on late Wednesday, and the number of confirmed cases has risen by 28,633 to 584,016.
A day earlier, Brazil reported about 28,936 new cases and 1,262 new fatalities. ■
