China has begun the first phase of clinical trials on a vaccine for the emerging corona virus, records show, as world scientists race to find a way to beat the deadly virus.

This comes after US health officials said last week that they had started an experiment to evaluate a possible vaccine in Seattle.

According to China's clinical trial record on March 17, Chinese efforts to produce a vaccine began on March 16, the same day the United States announced the start of trials, and is expected to continue until the end of the year.

"For the first phase of the trials, the volunteers began receiving the vaccine," an employee involved in the government-funded project told AFP on Sunday.

He added that participants between the ages of 18 and 60 will be tested in three groups, where they will be given different doses.

They are all residents of central China's Wuhan city, where the deadly virus first appeared late last year.

With the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic and governments stepping up protection measures, pharmaceutical companies and research laboratories around the world are working hard to try to find a vaccine.

There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for the new virus, which has so far killed more than 13,000 people.

The announcements of the vaccine experiments come amid the escalation of the dispute between the United States and China over the epidemic, as US President Donald Trump has angered Beijing by talking about the "Chinese virus."

The Chinese national newspaper "Global Times" published an opinion piece last week saying that "developing a battle vaccine that China cannot afford to lose".

However, it is expected that it will take time to reach a vaccine, and the candidate American vaccine may take another year to 18 months before it becomes available.

The remedial treatment, made by the US-based company Gilliad, is in the final stages of clinical trials in Asia, and doctors in China said it has proven effective in fighting the disease.

But only randomized trials will allow scientists to know if this treatment is really beneficial or whether patients will recover without it.