The regulator of the health industry in Brazil, Anvisa, says it has given permission for a third-phase clinical trial there of a third vaccine against COVID-19 developed in China.

Almost 8,000 adult volunteers in the states of Goiás, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina and São Paulo will be given two doses of the inactivated vaccine, Anvisa announced in writing last week.

It says the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Institute of Medical Biology in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming devised the vaccine.

The Brazilian trial is part of a broader set of trials on over 34,000 volunteers in Bangladesh, China, Malaysia and Mexico, Anvisa says.

Separately, a Chinese state-run newspaper, the Global Times, reports that in April Anvisa gave permission for clinical trials in Brazil of a vaccine against COVID-19 devised by Sichuan Clover Biopharmaceuticals Inc. of China, and that last July it gave permission for clinical trials in Brazil of a vaccine devised by Sinovac Biotech Ltd, also of China.