Germany approves first human trials on coronavirus vaccine

Germany has authorized its first clinical test of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, the country's regulatory body said Wednesday, green-lighting trials on human volunteers for an RNA vaccine developed by German firm Biontech and US giant Pfizer.

"The Paul-Ehrlich-Institut... has authorized the first clinical trial of a vaccine against COVID-19 in Germany," the regulatory body PEI said in a statement.

The trial, which was only the fourth to have been allowed worldwide, was a "significant step" in making a vaccine "available as soon as possible," the institute added.

The trials will see "200 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 55 years" vaccinated with variants of the RNA vaccine, while the second phase could see the inclusion of volunteers who belonged to high-risk groups.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged in late 2019 in China's Hubei province, and the virus has spread to 210 countries and territories since then.

To date, COVID-19 cases surpassed 2,500,000 globally, resulting in more than 695,000 recoveries and over 177,000 deaths.

On February 11, the WHO officially named the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) as COVID-19, and on March 11, declared it a pandemic.