HK-Macau Team To Start Covid Vaccine Trial Soon

Hong Kong and Macau scientists said on Monday that they’ve made a breakthrough towards producing an effective and cheap Covid-19 vaccine and human trials will be underway soon.

Scientists from Polytechnic University and Macau University of Science and Technology also said they have made an arrangement with possible manufacturers to reserve millions of the vaccine for the residents of the two SARs.

Dr Johnson Lau from the Polytechnic University said their vaccine works by inducing antibodies to respond against the new coronavirus and so far it has been 100 percent successful in monkeys, rats and rabbits that they’ve tested on.

But he said it is too early to say whether it is all good news to humans. It will need to undergo clinical trials and efforts are to start in months, if not weeks, he said, without divulging more details on where the trials will start first.

Lau said some vaccine manufacturers have already shown interest in producing it, with contracts already secured with one producer in Taiwan.

In the contracts, the manufacturers are being asked to reserve 8 million jabs from the first batch to Hong Kong and Macau people.

He said he has held several rounds of talks with the Secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit over the matter – and although no concrete commitments have been made so far, Lau said the response from the Hong Kong government has been good.