Brazil's health regulator, Anvisa has suspended a clinical trial for Chinese coronavirus vaccine candidate by Sinovac citing a severe incident. This came as a bolt out of the blue for the trial organisers who contended that there had been a death but it was not linked to the coronavirus vaccine.
The health regulator said the adverse event took place on October 29. The agency did not ascertain whether this incident took place due to Sinovac's coronavirus vaccine trials in Brazil or somewhere else.
Dimas Covas, head of the Sao Paulo research institute, Butantan was quoted by Reuters as saying, "As there are more than 10,000 volunteers at this moment, deaths can occur... It's a death that has no relation with the vaccine and as such it is not the moment to interrupt the trials."
The Sinovac vaccine was previously panned by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro as not credible. The vaccine by the Chinese pharmaceutical giant is among three experimental coronavirus vaccines that China has been using to inoculate several people under emergency use programme. According to a Chinese health official, serious side effects have not been observed in clinical trials.
As coronavirus cases rise all over the world, Brazil continues to remain the third most affected country globally. Brazil has reported a total number of 56, 75,766 active COVID-19 cases and 162,638 deaths so far.
Also read: COVID-19 vaccine: Russia's Sputnik V more than 90% effective, says Health Ministry