Amid warning of more outbreaks, China vaccine trials enter Phase 2

BEIJING: China on Sunday reported 25 new confirmed Covid-19 cases in the previous 24 hours even as an expert warned that outbreaks similar to the one in Beijing could occur in other cities as well.

China recorded 22 new cases in Beijing and three in neighbouring Hebei province on Saturday. Since June 11, when the outbreak began, Beijing had reported 227 confirmed domestically transmitted cases, the Beijing municipal health commission said in a daily report on Sunday.

Officials have said around 2.3 million people have been tested in an effort to contain the outbreak in the capital that was linked to its biggest wholesale food market, Xinfadi, in the southwest district of Fengtai.

Beijing health authorities are still investigating the source of the infection. Emergence of Beijing’s Covid-19 cases are not considered a second wave, but a sudden outbreak within a small area, which is currently controllable, Chinese infectious disease expert Zhang Wenhong has said.

A second wave, he explained, would have an obvious peak, then descend after spreading for a while. “We hope that the domestic epidemic situation can (pursue) a strategy of close to zero cases, rather than absolute zero cases,” Zhang told state media.

Chinese researchers have started a phase 2 human trial of a possible coronavirus vaccine, the Institute of Medical Biology at Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (IMBCAMS) said on Sunday.

IMBCAMS began on Saturday a phase 2 human test for its experimental shot, which is among six possible vaccines Chinese scientists are testing.