GENEVA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th April, 2020) Swiss immunologists will be ready to start vaccinating people against COVID-19 domestically as early as August, Martin Bachmann, the head of the immunology chair at Bern University, said on Monday.

Bachmann is currently leading a group of experts from several Swiss universities for developing a so-called genetically synthesized vaccine based on virus-like particles. Such vaccines - in use for Hepatitis B, for example - work by breaking down the protein which the virus uses to attach to a cell.

"We plan to immunize first people in August and then to conduct a large vaccination in October," Bachmann said at a press conference with the Association of Foreign Correspondents at the UN Office in Geneva.

According to the expert, the novel coronavirus is genetically stable and, unlike influenza, is most likely to not require more than one vaccine in a relatively long period of time.

"Our strategy is to achieve the immunization of at least all of Switzerland's population within the next six months and then begin producing the vaccine for the global market. This is an ambitious goal, but I assure you we have good chances," Bachmann said.

The team of experts expects to distinguish the most effective working samples of the vaccines by the end of April for them to then be tested in the Zurich and Bern university hospitals.

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Switzerland to Launch First COVID-19 Vaccine in August - Immunology Expert - UrduPoint News