COVID-19 vaccine: WHO applauds Oxford coronavirus vaccine data, but warns there’s still a long way to go

“We now need to move into larger-scale real-world trials. But it is good to see more data and more products moving into this very important phase of vaccine discovery,” Dr Michael Ryan said.

Ryan's comments came as scientists at Oxford University, in a paper published in The Lancet, said their experimental vaccine had been shown to trigger a protective immune response in hundreds of people who got the shot.

According to reports, the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca in the UK showed it was "safe, well tolerated and immunogenic", the vaccine according to Lancet also showed single dose elicited both "humoral and cellular responses against the virus".

AstraZeneca's experimental coronavirus vaccine was safe and produced an immune response in early-stage clinical trials in healthy volunteers, data revealed.

Vaccine developer Sarah Gilbert said: "There is still much work to be done before we can confirm if our vaccine will help manage the COVID-19 pandemic, but these early results hold promise," while adding, “we still do not know how strong an immune response we need to provoke to effectively protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection."

The Lancet medical journal said the vaccine AZD1222 under development by AstraZeneca and scientists at Britain's Oxford University did not prompt any serious side effects and elicited antibody and T-cell immune responses

The research took groups with co-morbidities, health-care workers and those with a higher risk for efficacy, safety and immunogenicity towards the virus given as single dose or two-dose administration regimen in further trials conducted in the UK and overseas.

Phase-3 trials are now underway in Brazil, South Africa and the UK. According to reports, no serious adverse reactions to the virus occurred. The majority of adverse events reported were mild or moderate in severity.

(With inputs from agencies)