Covid-19: Germany approves vaccines for trial

Germany has approved the first human trials of a possible COVID-19 vaccine.

The trial vaccine is said to be the fourth of its kind in the world to get approval for clinical testing.

The German Federal Institute for Vaccines said Biontech, a Mainz-based company, made the potential vaccine for COVID-19.

The vaccine, named BNT162, was developed alongside Pfizer, another pharmaceutical company.

According to the institute, 200 healthy people between the ages of 18 and 55 will be administered doses of the drug at the initial stage of the trial, while the second phase will be administered on higher-risk individuals.

The clinical testing of BNT162 will also be done in the United States.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said there are about 20 different potential COVID-19 vaccines currently in development.

The United Kingdom had announced that there would be clinical trials of a possible COVID-19 vaccine on patients from Thursday.

The vaccine, called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, is being developed by scientists at the University of Oxford.

According to Worldometers, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has exceeded 2.5 million globally, with 178,558 deaths. But 701,838 patients have recovered from the disease.