China Has Been Using The COVID-19 Vaccine In Its Key Workforce Since July
Border officials and health
workers were the first to be injected because they were more likely to be
infected, government adviser Zheng Zhongwei said.
Papua New Guinea has denied
entry to Chinese nationals who have participated in the Covid-19 vaccine trial.
A senior health official
said China had injected Covid-19 vaccine candidates to several groups of
workers, including medical workers and border inspection officials, for more
than a month.
Zheng Zhongwei, director of
the National Health Commission's (NHC) Science and Technology Development
Center (NHC), said in an interview with CCTV that the government had approved
the "emergency use" of the vaccine from July 22.
Zheng, who is also the head
of the government advisory panel on Covid-19, said the decision to start
implementation on certain groups of employees was "in line with the
law".
He did not say which
vaccines were used or the program involved one or more vaccines. Four of
the seven vaccine candidates currently in end-stage testing worldwide are
produced by Chinese companies.
"Health workers and border officials have been selected as the first to receive the vaccine because they are more likely to be infected with coronavirus."
Zheng said.
"Most cases in China today are imported, so border officials are a high risk group."
he said.
In the future, an
immunization program will be deployed that includes people working in the
transport and services industries and in wet markets, to create a "barrier
to immunity," he said.
Zheng did not say how many
people have been injected, but said the next step is to expand the program to
even more people before fall and winter begin and the likelihood of the infection
will spike.
The NHC started considering
the use of the emergency rule in April but it wasn't until June 24 that the NHC
was approved for implementation.
The day before, China
National Biotec Group (CNBG) was given the green light to begin phase three testing
of one of its vaccine candidates in the United Arab Emirates. The
state-owned company has also been approved to perform tests in Bahrain, Peru,
Morocco and Argentina.
Yang Xiaoming, president of
CNBG, said 20,000 people took part in overseas trials and the preliminary
results were positive.
"The situation involving 20,000 volunteers after being vaccinated shows that our vaccines are safe and there have been almost no reports of people with side effects."
he said in the same
interview with Zheng.
Other Chinese companies
participating in the end-stage clinical trial are Sinovac - in Brazil and
Indonesia - and CanSino Biologics in Russia.
CanSino products were
developed in cooperation with the Military Medical Science Academy and in June
were approved for use by military personnel.
On the price issue, Zheng
said all Chinese Covid-19 vaccines would be "affordable to the
public".
His comments came after Liu
Jingzhen, president of Sinopharm - CNBG's parent company - was quoted by
Shanghai Daily Newspaper on Tuesday, saying the price for a two-dose regimen.
Their inactivated vaccine will be about 1,000 yuan ($ 145), many times the cost
suggested by the manufacturers of alternative products.
“President Xi [Can Binh] said Covid-19 vaccine is a product of public health. One principle of public health products is that they are priced not based on supply and demand but on cost plus a reasonable profit.”
Said Zheng.
"I can tell you that the price will definitely be lower than what President Liu said."
Zhao Dahai, a professor of
public health at Shanghai Jiaotong University, said Beijing's decision to
approve the use of vaccines for key employees shows that they believe in the
safety and effectiveness of them.
"That tells the world that we are not playing around with the lives of foreign volunteers participating in clinical trials. We're pretty sure about their safety."
Earlier, the island nation
of Papua New Guinea refused entry to Chinese citizens who participated in the
Covid-19 vaccine trial.
David Manning, the head of
disaster management at Papua New Guinea, denied workers access after being
notified of their vaccinations, and sent a strong letter to the Chinese
Ambassador, Xue Bing.
“The PNG government requires and deserves a full understanding of the (development) vaccine and the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine vaccination program carried out in China and its potential risks before requesting travel. China's calendar is approved.”
Mr. Manning said.
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