COVID-19 Vaccines Expected to Enter Clinical Trials Soon

Source: HangzhouTube, Xinhua News, China Daily

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Research and development of COVID-19 vaccines in China has been carried out in a scientific, standardized and orderly way, said Wang Junzhi, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering. 

He noted that most teams are expected to complete preclinical research in April and some are moving forward faster. 

Some research team has been enrolling volunteers and applied for clinical trials with the National Medical Products Administration, he added. 

On Monday, an official from the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission said that a vaccine developed in Shanghai is expected to enter clinical trials by mid-April.

Jack Ma donates anti-epidemic materials to the US and 54 African countries!

On March 16, Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba group, opened a twitter account and wrote in the first tweet that he would donate anti-epidemic materials to the United States. It is reported that Ma has donated 500,000 kits and 1 million masks to the country.

Later, Jack Ma also tweeted that Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation decided to donate anti-epidemic materials including 20,000 kits, 100,000 masks, 1000 sets of medical protective clothing and 1000 protective masks to 54 countries in Africa, each.

 

Zhejiang medical experts fly to Italy to help fight the epidemic

On March 17, Zhejiang Province, dispatched by the state, set up a Chinese anti-epidemic medical expert group to assist in coping with the epidemic in Italy.

 

The panel left Shanghai Pudong airport for Milan, Italy on March 18. A batch of medical treatment articles donated by Zhejiang Province and urgently needed by the local people were carried along, including 30 sets of ICU equipment such as ventilators, monitors, dual channel infusion pumps, 2 sets of portable color ultrasounds, 60,000 laboratory test reagents, a batch of protective materials and commonly used drugs, totaling 9 tons.

First chartered train takes workers from Hubei to Zhejiang

 

Hubei, the hard-hit province of the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak, dispatched its first chartered train on Wednesday morning, sending about 530 workers to Shaoxing, East China's Zhejiang province, as China Youth Daily reported.

 

It was the first train with a stopover in Central China's Hubei since the province has been in lockdown since in late January. It was approved on Tuesday with great support from the provincial government and China State Railway Group.

These 530 workers are from Hubei's Enshi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture, which has been listed as an area with medium and low risks of infection, along with cities like Qianjiang and Xianning.

 

Early on Monday, Shaoxing sent a working group to the prefecture to help the government coordinate the worker transportation plan, according to the report.

 

Since mid-March, Shaoxing has organized the transport of 689 workers from Hubei province's Qianjiang, Jinmen, and Enshi back to their positions by chartered buses and trains.

 

Tourism begins reopening across country

There are 3,714 attractions in 28 provinces and regions that have reopened to travelers as of Monday, accounting for about 30 percent of the total, said Gao Zheng, director of industry development at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

 

Per Gao, these attractions are mainly mountains and parks, and there are no abnormal cases reported at these scenic spots since their reopening.

 

"We've enhanced prevention and control measures against the coronavirus at the attractions," he said. "Also, more attractions with medium or low risks of infection are in the pipeline to reopen."

 

He said the ministry ordered culture and tourism departments to prepare emergency plans and strictly control the flow of visitors to avoid any possible risks of getting infected.

China's fight against COVID-19, by the numbers

For Expats in Zhejiang

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