ImmunityBio, Inc. announced it has received authorization from the South Africa Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) to begin a Phase I clinical trial of its hAd5 T-cell vaccine, the company’s novel COVID-19 vaccine candidate, which will be administered subcutaneously. The same vaccine is currently being tested in a similar Phase I trial in the U.S., with no safety concerns identified to date. With the goal of creating longer-term protection from the virus, hAd5-COVID-19 targets both the mutation-prone outer spike protein (S) and the more stable inner nucleocapsid (N) protein, activating antibodies, memory B cells, and T-cells against the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). This novel vaccine candidate is delivered subcutaneously and via a room-temperature oral capsule formulation and has the potential to serve as a universal T-cell boost to current vaccines or address mutations where other vaccines might fail, including the 501Y.V2 variant, which has been found in patients in South Africa. This increases the urgency that a range of COVID-19 vaccines be available to the global population where mutations are rapidly occurring.