The governor of Brazil's Sao Paulo state said that Phase 3 clinical trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd have shown promising results and it may be available to Brazilians as early as December.

Governor Joao Doria added that Phase 2 trials of the potential vaccine had shown an immune response of 98 percent in the elderly.

Some 9,000 Brazilians are participating in the Sinovac vaccine trials, which are being conducted by the Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo city, the state capital.

Brazil, which has the third worst outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the world after the United States and India, has become a testing ground for at least two vaccine candidates.

AstraZeneca says it has suspended trials of the coronavirus vaccine it is developing with the University of Oxford after one of the trials' volunteers fell ill with an unexplained illness.

More than 27.5 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the coronavirus and 900,079 have died. Nearly 18.5 million people.

Source: Aljazeera