Researchers are making “good progress” in developing vaccines against COVID-19, with a handful in late-stage trials, but their first use cannot be expected until early 2021, a World Health Organisation (WHO) expert said on Wednesday. “We’re making good progress,” Dr Ryan said, noting that several vaccines were now in phase 3 trials and none had failed, so far, in terms of safety or ability to generate an immune response. WHO was working to expand access to potential vaccines and to help scale-up production capacity, Dr Ryan said. The US government will pay $1.95 billion to buy 100 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer Inc and German biotech BioNTech if it proves safe and effective, the companies said. Dr Ryan also cautioned schools to be careful about re-opening until community transmission of Covid-19 is under control.

Source: The Irish Times July 22, 2020 18:56 UTC