Peru says Chinese Sinopharm can resume coronavirus vaccination trial after a volunteer’s illness

LIMA (Reuters) – Peruvian Health Minister said Wednesday that China’s Sinopharm could resume trial for its coronavirus vaccine in the hard-hit Andean nation just days after authorities suspended testing to better understand why a Volunteer fell ill.

Health authorities announced this weekend that the Sinopharm study would be temporarily halted as a safety measure after a volunteer experienced reduced strength in his legs, among other things.

“We’ve had several meetings with Sinopharm and … the suspension has been lifted today (Wednesday),” said Health Minister Pilar Mazzetti.

Sinopharm Group Co Ltd, which is conducting its trials in Peru with approximately 12,000 volunteers, was about to complete the first phase of the trials in the coming days, with plans to add a second dose of its vaccine in the coming weeks to serve.

Peru’s government said on Tuesday that negotiations with Sinopharm to buy COVID-19 vaccines are “advanced”.

Health officials in Peru reported 987,675 cases of coronavirus and 36,817 deaths on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino, written by Dave Sherwood; edited by Grant McCool)

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