SERRANA, Brazil (AP) — A city of 46,000 in Brazil is giving hope to millions of people taking the COVID-19 shot developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac. The community of Serrana in the countryside of Sao Paulo state has returned to nearly normal life after an eight-week project to test the shot in real life conditions. Preliminary results announced on Monday showed vast improvements: Deaths fell by 95%, hospitalizations by 86% and symptomatic cases by 80%. The experiment also suggests the pandemic can be controlled if three-quarters of the population is fully vaccinated with Sinovac. The World Health Organization on Tuesday granted emergency use authorization to the Sinovac vaccine for people 18 and over.
