KUCHING: As of Wednesday, 23 individuals have signed over their consent to participate in the Covid-19 vaccine clinical trial at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) and two participants have been administered the vaccine.
State Health Department (JKNS) director Dr Chin Zin Hing said the process was still ongoing.
“Those who have registered will be contacted, screened, and so on, and once they have consented then they will be informed of the time to come for their vaccination.
“Then, there will be a follow-up for 13 months,” he said at the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) Covid-19 update press conference today.
He explained that each volunteer would have a 50 percent chance of receiving the vaccine and another 50 percent chance of receiving a placebo.
“Because we are trying to see what the effect of the vaccine is — hence this is called a clinical trial,” he said.
As for the vaccines for frontliners, Dr Chin said these would arrive at the end of February.
“So we will start the programme for frontliners in February,” he said.
SGH is one of the nine hospitals nationwide included in this clinical trial, involving a Covid-19 vaccine developed by the Institute of Medical Biology Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (IMBCAMS).
