Brazil Trial Shows CoronaVac 50 Percent Effective

Brazilian authorities say the mainland-made CoronaVac vaccine has a 50 percent efficacy rate in late-stage trials.

While it reaches the minimum target set by the World Health Organisation, it's well behind other vaccines produced by Moderna, at 94 percent, and Pfizer/BioNTech at 95 percent.

Coronavac has been given to frontline health care workers in close contact with coronavirus patients.

The organisation in charge of its production in the South American country, the Butantan Institute, repeated its claim from last week that the vaccine is 78 percent effective in preventing mild cases that needed treatment and showed 100 percent efficacy in staving off moderate to serious cases.

Overall, it is 50 percent effective in preventing patients from contracting the disease, including very mild cases, although not asymptomatic ones.

"It's a safe, effective vaccine that ticks all the boxes to justify its use in an emergency," said Butantan director Dimas Covas.

The trial, which was used on 12,500 volunteers, did not produce any adverse effects or significant allergic reactions.

The Brazilian authorities said if the vaccine resisted this test, it was going to work infinitely better on a community level.

Brazil has recorded more than 203,000 deaths from Covid-19 and over eight million cases among its 212 million population.

Sao Paulo state is due to begin immunizing its 12 million citizens from January 25.

Beijing has already sent 10.7 million Coronavac doses and the supplies needed to make another 40 million doses. (With AFP and Reuters)