Havana, September 3 (RHC)--Executives of the Finlay Vaccine Institute presented the progress of the Cuban COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Soberana 01, during an online meeting with authorities of the Pan American and World Health organizations (PAHO/WHO).

The meeting was held on Wednesday at the PAHO/WHO headquarters in Cuba and was attended by experts from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a global organization for the development of vaccine

s, reported the Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN) news agency.

Soberana 01 was tested at the end of July by the project leaders themselves: Vicente Vérez, director of the Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV), Yuri Valdés and Dagmar García, all of them principal researchers of the vaccine candidate.

On August 24, the first phase of clinical trials began with a group of 20 people between 19 and 59 years old and this week it will be applied to another twenty volunteers between 60 and 80 years old.

In the second phase, scheduled for September 11, the sample will be expanded to 676 volunteers, including 40 from the first phase.