CAIRO — Regional Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the Eastern Mediterranean Ahmed al-Mandhari warned that the coronavirus pandemic continues to be a cause for concern, as cases in the eastern Mediterranean region, which includes 22 countries, have topped 3 million, with 78,000 deaths as of early November.
In a Nov. 1 interview with Al-Monitor via WhatsApp, Mandhari said that there are currently around 200 coronavirus vaccine candidates under development, 40 of which have reached the human clinical evaluation stage, and a large number of vaccines are in phase three trials. He noted that several countries in the eastern Mediterranean region are participating in the third phase of vaccine trials.