The photo taken on September 24, 2020 shows a staff member working during a media tour of a new factory built to produce a Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine in Sinovac, one of the Chinese companies approved to carry out clinical trials of possible coronavirus vaccines in Beijing.
Wang Zhao | AFP | Getty Images
China will first focus on vaccinating high-risk groups during the winter and spring before extending inoculation to the general public, a senior health official said on Saturday.
Zeng Yixin, deputy minister of China’s National Health Commission (NHC) and director of the State Council’s R&D vaccine working group, warned that China’s Covid-19 prevention efforts were under increasing pressure as temperatures drop.
“During the winter and spring seasons, conducting new coronavirus vaccination work among some key population groups is of great importance for the prevention of the epidemic,” he said in a briefing.
China intends to actively build group immunity and vaccination of high-risk groups (which include workers in the cold chain industry, customs, healthcare, markets and public transportation) is only the first part of a “program step by step”. ” added.
China has included two candidate vaccines from Sinopharm and one from Sinovac Biotech in an emergency use program launched in July, targeting specific high-risk risk groups, such as medical workers and border inspectors.
It has also approved a CanSino Biologics vaccine for military use, but has not approved any vaccines for the general public.
Zheng Zhongwei, head of China’s Covid-19 vaccine development team, said China had administered more than a million emergency doses to members of high-risk groups since July and that until no “serious adverse reactions” have now been detected.
“For vaccines where we move fairly quickly, the number of cases required for the interim stage of phase III clinical trials has already been obtained,” Zheng said, though he did not specify which products.
The data has been sent to the medical product regulator, which will approve the vaccines if they meet the necessary conditions, he added.