Israel Begins Human Trials Of COVID-19 Vaccine

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Israel on Sunday, November 1, began testing human trials of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate, which, if successful, will soon be distributed to the general public by the end of next summer.

A total of 80 volunteers will take part in the pilot in the early stages. That number will expand to 960 in December.

If the trial is successful, a third stage test with 30,000 volunteers is scheduled to take place in April or May.

"We are at the last stage," said Shmuel Shapira, Director General of the Israel Institute of Biological Research, quoted by Antara, Monday, November 2.

The institute, which is overseen by the Ministry of Defense, in March began animal trials of the "BriLife" vaccine and a week ago announced it had received regulatory approval to proceed to the next stage.

Shmuel Yitzhaki, head of the biology division at the Israel Biological Research Institute, told Reuters that if all goes well, the vaccine could reach the general public by the end of next summer.

While the first batch of volunteers received a potential vaccine, across the country primary school students were returning to school as the second national shutdown gradually ended.

Restrictions in Israel, which has a population of nine million, are slowly being lifted following a steady decline in daily infection rates.

Grade one through grade four students are the first to return to school on Sundays. Higher grade children are still learning from home.

The government also approved a gradual reopening of business and recreational activities,

Israel recorded 674 new cases as of Friday, October 30. That figure is down from a peak of cases of more than 9,000 a few weeks ago.

Israel has reported 2,541 deaths from the pandemic.