An employee shows a candidate for the China National Biotec Group (CNBG) coronavirus vaccine during the 2020 China International Service Trade Fair (CIFTIS) in Beijing, China, on September 5th.
Photographer: Lintao Zhang / Getty Images AsiaPac
Photographer: Lintao Zhang / Getty Images AsiaPac
China has said it has already administered more than a million coronavirus vaccines since July and plans to distribute more, initially aimed at workers in industries where they are most at risk of infection, as the country wants to be in the forefront of global vaccination against the Covid-19 effort.
Vaccines developed by Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and the state-owned company China National Biotec Group Co., known as CNBG, have been dispensed in the country since they were granted emergency use permission in July.
China now plans a wider distribution of experimental catches with those working in hospitals, customs, public transportation and cold chain logistics, as well as vulnerable groups, including people with pre-existing medical conditions, to receive them first. A later phase of the deployment will involve the general public, Zeng Yixin, deputy minister of China’s National Health Commission, told reporters on Saturday.
Zeng said the colder weather with the onset of winter poses a challenge to China’s control over the virus, which it has virtually eliminated internally with a combination of strict border controls and massive testing.
“Our goal is to establish herd immunity through inoculations so that Covid-19 can be effectively controlled quickly,” he said.
Two shots
The number of vaccines puts China far ahead of the United States and the United Kingdom, which only recently gave emergency clearance to features developed by drug giant Pfizer Inc. and the German BioNTech SE, which allows them to start vaccinating people in specific target groups. The USA also removed the Covid-19 vaccine from Moderna Inc. Friday. Russia, which says it is already delivering its own production to its population, has vaccinated 320,000 people, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The figure of one million refers to the doses administered, not to the number of inoculated. Yang Xiaoming, president of the CNBG, recently said more than 650,000 people had been vaccinated with Chinese vaccines, locals reported. media reports. Both CNBG and Sinovac candidates follow a two-stroke regime of a first punch and then a reinforcement.
Follow the global vaccine launch here, with Bloombergtracker
Although Chinese officials did not reveal how many people will be vaccinated in the next stages of the inoculation effort, Bloomberg reported Friday that authorities plan to administer locally developed traits in up to 50 million workers are thought to be at high risk of exposure to the virus in early February, a major expansion that will make local branches of China’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, medical clinics and hospitals mobilize to achieve the ambitious goal.
Virus outbreaks
The deployment, which comes amid speculation, is that the Chinese drug regulator is about to sign CNBG and Sinovac vaccines for general use, it would be roughly the equivalent of inoculating the entire South Korean population in less of two months, a measure that would put the country well ahead in the distribution race if successful. The rapid deployment of coronavirus testing in China in recent months, with millions tested for several days after cases are identified, may be a model for how the nation of 1.4 billion people intend to tackle vaccines.
Vaccination plans for 50 million people underscore Beijing’s attention to preventing a repeat of the deadly outbreak that began in Wuhan City earlier this year. Although China has almost wiped out local transmission of the virus and life has largely returned to normal for the vast majority of its population, a number of infections have appeared in the northeastern province in recent weeks. from Heilongjiang, to Xinjiang, to the west, and to Sichuan. , and even in the Chinese capital, heavily guarded.
No serious side effects have been observed among those who have received Chinese vaccines so far, Zheng Zhongwei, director overseeing the development of the coronavirus vaccine at the National Health Commission, said on Saturday. China will reveal data on the effectiveness of Chinese features “on time,” with developers filing updates to the drug regulator on an ongoing basis.
Less transparency
Compared to Western vaccination efforts, very little data have been made public on the efficacy and safety of human trials in the final phase on Chinese shooting. Five of the vaccine candidates are in the final stage, phase III clinical trials being conducted at virus hotspots in Southeast Asia, South America and the Middle East.
The relative lack of transparency and information has fueled skepticism about China’s features, which President Xi Jinping has said will be deployed globally. The country is also part of the World Health Organization’s Covax initiative, designed to distribute vaccines to developing countries.
Chinese vaccine developers have also signed supply agreements with countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, which said earlier this month that CNBG’s firing showed an 86% effectiveness rate in a local clinical trial of more than 30,000 people.
The investigation indicates that China’s vaccines offer protection against Covid-19 for at least six months, Zeng reported at Saturday’s briefing at the National Health Commission. He said antibodies continue to be detected in people who were shot as early as March.
Defended approach
With the massive vaccination effort going on in the gear, the Chinese CDC will take advantage of its existing control systems to monitor the serious side effects of Covid-19 vaccines, said Wang Huaqing, the leading immunization expert. cos. China’s mechanisms for controlling vaccine safety meet WHO standards and hospitals and clinics that will administer the vaccines nationwide have the ability to identify and treat any side effects, he said.
Officials do said earlier that there were no serious adverse events (diseases in people receiving a vaccine that can sometimes stop a clinical trial) among those inoculated under the emergency use program. The country has defended its broad interpretation of the emergency permit, which includes workers from state-owned foreign-run companies, saying the risk of Covid-19 returning to its borders remains high.
– With the assistance of Emma O’Brien, Claire Che and Dong Lyu
(Executive updates on the number of vaccinated in the seventh paragraph.)