By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, Jan 27: State Health Department director Dr Chin Zin Hing has assured the public and volunteers that the Covid-19 clinical trial will be conducted according to the protocols.
While not having the details of the Covid-19 clinical trial, he explained that the study was done at the clinical research centre (CRC) and a team of specialist at the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) with the cooperation of the CRC.
“It (SGH) is one of the nine centres. They have the protocols.
“Be sure that this trial is done according to the protocols.
“Whoever the volunteers, we need to ask a lot of questions to check whether they are suitable or not.
“Finally, we also need to get their consent (to take part in the trial),” he gave the updates during a press conference here today.
Dr Chin said when the volunteers were tested, half of them will be randomly assigned either with Covid-19 vaccine or placebo.
He explained that the placebo is something, not a vaccine.
Dr Chin said medical officers will be monitoring the volunteers during the trial period and if there is any side effect, medical treatment and supervision will be provided.
Without disclosing the exact timeline of the clinical trial, he noted that the Covid-19 clinical trial could take a long period of time.
Nonetheless, he pointed out that volunteers who encountered problems during the clinical trial can contact their investigators.
On January 6, the State Health Department has called for 400 volunteers to participate in a Covid-19 vaccine trial for a vaccine from China which started this month.
Dr Chin later disclosed that more than 500 individuals have volunteered to take part in the clinical trial. —DayakDaily
