Source: HangzhouTube, China Daily

Good afternoon

The first clinical trial of the novel coronavirus vaccine in China has kicked off as volunteers taking part in the project started to share their experience on social media, a Chinese newspaper reported on Saturday.



On Thursday, a female volunteer posted two pictures of her taking the vaccine shot as a part of the phase 1 clinical trial for recombinant novel coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine on China's Twitter-like social media platform Sina Weibo, according to the Science and Technology Daily.



The clinical trial was filed on Chinese Clinical Trial Registry on March 17, the newspaper said.



According to its registration information, the trial is jointly sponsored by the Institute of Biotechnology, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, People's Liberation Army and CanSino Biologics Inc based in Tianjin.



The trial is being carried out on healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 60 in two medical facilities in Wuhan, Hubei province. The study is set to be completed by Dec 31, according to the registry.



All 108 volunteers are from Wuhan that was hit hard by the outbreak. They will receive a series of follow-up examinations within six months after injection to see if their bodies have generated antibody to the virus, the registry said.



Wang Junzhi, a senior expert on drug and vaccine development, said earlier this month that China is simultaneously conducting nine vaccine development projects, and most of them are expected to complete preclinical trials and begin human tests in April.





No new local virus infections for 3 straight days in mainland

As of March 21, the Chinese mainland has seen no homegrown infections of COVID-19, a disease caused by a novel coronavirus, for three straight days, as the latest data of the National Health Commission showed.







Imported cases, however, keep increasing and are on a generally upward trend in the past week despite fluctuations.The daily increase of imported cases reached a record high of 41, bringing up the caseload on the Chinese mainland to 81,008, the commission said.

As of March 21, 269 imported cases have been counted.

Two imported cases of COVID-19 reported in Zhejiang

Zhejiang saw two imported cases of COVID-19 on Friday. One is from Spain and the other is from Turkey.As of 24:00 of March 20, a total of 1236 cases have been reported in Zhejiang, including 19 imported cases from overseas. As of present, one patient has died, and a total of 1219 patients have been discharged from hospital, including 4 imported patients. There is one suspected case now in the province.





Beware! Three people in Hangzhou injured from this in a week!

As it gets warmer, snakes begin to appear in Hangzhou. Since March 10, Yuan Chengda, deputy director of Dermatology of Hangzhou Hospital of TCM, received three patients within one week.





Among them, a 40-year-old woman living in Fuyang got bitten when taking a walk. On Monday night, when she went for a walk in a small park near her home, she was bitten by a snake on her right foot, and she was immediately sent to the local hospital for treatment by her family.When injecting antivenom serum and conducting tetanus skin test, the doctor found that her test result was positive, and transferred her to Hangzhou Hospital of TCM for treatment."Many people believe that if they are bitten by a snake, they should be treated with antivenom injection, but in fact, not all people can accept this treatment physically." Yuan Chengda explained that before injection, doctors usually carry out skin test of snake venom serum to patients. If the test result is positive, it cannot be treated by injection.1. When going outside into areas with dense nature, try to avoid the places with lush vegetation, especially at night, or in evening and early morning.2. If you have to go to grass or woods, you'd better clear your path with a pole or branch.3. Protect your calves, ankles, fingers, wrists, and especially feet, and do not wear slippers when going to parks.Once bitten by a snake, go see a doctor immediately.

Zhejiang Schools to Begin on March 30? Authority Responds!





On March 19, a message saying "the Provincial Education Department will officially announce next week that the first batch of classes (grade 3 of high schools) will restart on March 30, and the second batch on April 7", which has spread quickly on the Internet.



Is it true?









On March 20, Zhejiang Education Department responded that, "as of now, the school opening time of our province has not been specified. According to the situation of epidemic prevention and control, we are in the process of scientific assessment and will release it to the public through authoritative release channels one week in advance. ".







For Expats in Zhejiang











