The Health Minister of Peru, Pilar Mazzetti, announced on 16 December 2020 that COVID-19 vaccine trials of Chinese healthcare group China National Pharmaceutical Group Corp (Sinopharm) can resume in Peru, CNN reported on Thursday.

Mazzetti was quoted as saying during a Cabinet news briefing on 16 December: "The situation has been clarified and the suspension has been lifted today."

On 12 December 2020, Peru's clinical trials of the Sinopharm vaccine were temporarily suspended by the Peruvian National Institute of Health after a 64-year-old patient, with a history of diabetes, reported a decrease in muscle strength in his legs.

At that time, German Malaga, the head of clinical trials at Sinopharm laboratories in Peru, said that the reason for the symptoms had not yet been determined.

Mazzetti gave no further details as to whether or not the patient's symptoms were linked to the vaccine candidate, CNN added.