Volunteers in Bahrain sign up for vaccine trial with Chinese drug giant

Volunteers in Bahrain sign up for vaccine trial with Chinese drug giant

In a Bahrain exhibition centre that used to hold jewellery shows and book fairs before the coronavirus pandemic, Mohammed al-Blooshi and other masked volunteers wait for a dose of a Chinese trial vaccine.

"It is a service to humanity," says Blooshi, one of thousands in the wealthy Gulf country set to participate in the study.

Chinese drug giant Sinopharm began testing a Covid-19 vaccine in Bahrain in August after starting a similar trial on 15,000 subjects in the nearby United Arab Emirates a month earlier.

The randomised, double-blind trial of 6,000 people is still recruiting healthy men and women as volunteers to test the vaccine's efficacy and safety in a large cross-section of the population.

The trial is due to finish next July, while the overall study is forecast to be completed by September