HANOI, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- The first test injections of Nanocovax, Vietnam's first home-made COVID-19 vaccine approved for human trials, were conducted on three volunteers here on Thursday, Vietnam News Agency reported.

Developed by Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC, Nanocovax is Vietnam's first COVID-19 candidate vaccine to reach the human trial stage.

Nanocovax is scheduled to be tested on 60 selected volunteers aged between 18 and 50 in the first phase of human trials, the news agency cited a health official as saying.

The volunteers will receive two doses of the vaccine via intramuscular injections in the upper arm, which are 28 days apart, and will be under medical monitoring for six months.

If the trials show good results, the drugmaker plans to apply Nanocovax among the public in May 2021, the news agency reported.

Vietnam's total confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection stood at 1,405 as of Thursday morning, with 35 deaths from the disease so far, according to its Ministry of Health.