COVID Vaccine Trial Volunteer Dies In Brazil

Anvisa, the health authority of Brazil on Wednesday informed a Brazilian volunteer died during a clinical trial of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

According to Reuters, an investigation in the incident is underway.

The regulator was quoted saying in the Reuters report that, "testing of the vaccine would continue after the volunteer's death. It provided no further details, citing medical confidentiality of those involved in trials".

AstraZeneca shares turned negative and were down 1.7%.

The federal government already has plans to purchase the UK vaccine and produce it at its biomedical research center FioCruz in Rio de Janeiro, while a competing vaccine from China's Sinovac is being tested by Sao Paulo state's research center Butantan Institute, the report added.

Brazil has recorded the second-largest coronavirus related death globally and is the third-worst affected country with over 5.2 million infected with the virus.