South Africa's coronavirus cases jumped to more than 100,000 on Monday, while the number
of deaths inched towards 2,000 [EPA]
South Africa plans to roll out the continent's first coronavirus vaccine trial this week,
according to the university leading the pilot, as the country grapples with the highest
number of coronavirus cases in Africa.
The vaccine candidate, developed by the Oxford Jenner Institute in the United Kingdom, is
already being evaluated there, where 4,000 participants have signed up for the trial.
In South Africa, the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) is collaborating with the
University of Oxford and the Oxford Jenner Institute in the trial of the vaccine known as
ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. The pilot will involve 2,000 people, including 50 who have HIV.
"We began screening participants for the South African Oxford 1 COVID-19 vaccine trial last
week, and the first participants will be vaccinated this week," Wits vaccinology professor
Shabir Madhi told a virtual news conference.
Brazil is planning its own pilot, while the United States is preparing to test another
vaccine in a mass trial of up to 30,000 participants.
(Aljazeera)