China again refuted allegations that the coronavirus “escaped” from its lab in Wuhan. According to the Global Times, the latest research again indicates that it was unlikely the novel coronavirus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), experts said, amid the recent hyping of the lab leak theory by U.S. media ahead of the meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA). U.S. President Joe Biden has tasked U.S. intelligence agencies to report to him in 90 days if the coronavirus escaped from a laboratory or evolved in nature from an animal host to infect humans.
Researchers from the WIV and the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, including Shi Zhengli, who has been dubbed China's “Bat Woman” for her years of research and achievements with bats and viruses, recently published a report on BioRxiv that further refutes the theory that the virus came from the laboratory. The research shows that none of the known viruses of the bat SARSr-CoV-2 lineage or its novel variant use the human ACE2 as efficiently as SARSr-CoV-2 from pangolins or some of the SARSr-CoV-1 lineage viruses. Bats and pangolins are recognized as the most probable reservoir hosts that harbor viruses which are very similar to SARS-CoV-2. Virus samples from bats were kept at the WIV, but those are different from the one that caused Covid-19. “When we say a virus is from a lab, we are indicating that either the virus, or a highly similar virus, is leaked from a lab, or a virus is manufactured by man in a lab. But the two possibilities have both been refuted so far by scientific research,” Zhuang Shilihe, a Guangzhou-based expert, told the Global Times.
“If the U.S. side truly demands a completely transparent investigation, it should follow China's lead to invite the WHO experts to the U.S., open Fort Detrick and biolabs overseas to the rest of the world, and disclose detailed data and information on the unexplained outbreaks of respiratory disease in northern Virginia in July, 2019 and the EVALI outbreak in Wisconsin,” the Global Times writes.
As China accelerates its vaccination pace, the Global Times found that six cities – Beijing, four cities in Hainan province, and Dalian in Liaoning province – have a first-dose coverage rate above 80%, touching the threshold for herd immunity. In Yunnan province, 25 land border areas have also achieved the goal. Data for Shanghai and some major cities in Guangdong and Hubei provinces, show first-dose vaccination rates close to or exceeding 70%. They are soon to reach herd immunity when people get their second doses as scheduled, observers said. China has reached a new daily vaccination record of 19.4 million doses, bringing the total to more than 584 million. It took the country just seven days to bring the total from 400 million to 500 million, while going from 100 million to 200 million took 25 days. Analysts said that the major restraint for China to further raise the inoculation pace still lies in tight supplies of vaccines.
Recent sporadic outbreaks are a great impetus for people nationwide to rush to be vaccinated. A recent World Economic Forum-Ipsos survey of 10,000 unvaccinated adults in 15 countries found that 81% of Chinese respondents were willing to get the doses, which was categorized as “very high.” The rate was 73% in Japan, 71% in Germany and 46% in the U.S.
China for the first time released data about adverse reactions to Covid-19 vaccines, concluding that adverse reactions were lower compared to other vaccines. A total of 31,434 adverse reactions were reported among 265 million doses used between December 15, 2020 and April 30, 2021, or 11.86 in every 100,000 doses, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced. Among adverse reactions, fever and swelling accounted for 82.96%, while severe reactions such as acute allergies accounted for 17.04%. Among severe adverse reaction cases, 188 were deemed “serious,” which means 0.07 cases in every 100,000 doses administered, which was rated “extremely rare.”
The first three-dose Covid-19 vaccine, which experts said would provide better protection compared the one-dose and two-dose ones, has been launched in China and is already being administered in at least 13 provincial-level regions. The vaccine was jointly developed by the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharma-ceutical. The company is expected to produce more than 500 million shots by the end of this year. It is the world's first recombinant subunit protein vaccine and has been approved for use by the Chinese vaccine authorities. The third dose can serve as a booster shot to enhance immunity, Tao Lina, a Shanghai-based vaccine expert, told the Global Times. The second and third shots of the Zhifei Longcom vaccine need to be given 28 and 56 days after the first injection.
In the past week, new Covid-19 cases have been reported in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Foshan, all in Guangdong province. Mass testing was performed in the affected areas. The infections are similar to those found in India and the UK. The spread of infections in Guangzhou was “fast and strong,” said Jiang Qingwu, Professor at Fudan University’s School of Public Health. Guangzhou requires people leaving the city to have a negative nucleic acid test done within three days before departure. Since the first case was detected in Guangzhou on May 21, 23 confirmed and seven asymptomatic cases have surfaced. Liwan district, the most affected area in Guangzhou, had sealed off five streets with 473 intersections as of May 31. People living in those streets are banned from going out and all public venues will be closed. The Chinese government has dispatched a working group to Guangzhou to guide the local anti-epidemic work and “take the most rigorous measures” to cut off the transmission. Many flights at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, the world's busiest airport during the pandemic, were canceled on May 31. Guangdong province accounts for 90% of China's daily international arrivals.
This overview is based on reporting by the China Daily, Shanghai Daily and Global Times.
