Facing imported cases and new variants, China speeds up vaccination drive and reiterates importance of wearing face mask

Imported Covid-19 infections, sporadic local outbreaks and constant virus mutations have all threatened to disrupt China’s stable epidemic control situation, Chinese experts said, urging the public to get vaccinated as soon as possible while also abiding by personal hygiene measures. Preliminary research shows that China’s Covid-19 vaccines currently in use can provide protection against new variants first detected in India to a certain extent, said Shao Yiming, Researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. New vaccines will be developed and rolled out if the situation requires it, he said. Stringent virus control measures should not be relaxed for one second, said Wu Liangyou, Deputy Director of the National Health Commission’s Disease Prevention and Control Bureau.

An outbreak on May 13 led to 21 confirmed infections in Anhui and Liaoning provinces. Chinese experts suspect the origin of the recent outbreak is an infected individual or contaminated article coming from abroad. “As long as the virus’ spread overseas is not reined in, any region in China is at risk of seeing new infections,” Wu said. “As a result, the public must stick to personal protective measures, such as wearing masks.” He added that before herd immunity against the virus is built up among the public, masks are still necessary.

Respiratory Expert Zhong Nanshan said it is likely that human beings will coexist with the virus in the future. He added that if the length of the immune response from vaccination is shorter than a year, vaccination should be given annually, similar to influenza vaccines.

Recent studies from Thailand, Indonesia and Chile have affirmed the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac Biotech. A new study conducted by Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University showed that 99.49% of Thai recipients of the CoronaVac vaccine had developed antibodies four weeks after their second shots, the Bangkok Post reported. Three weeks after the first shot, around 66% of the recipients had developed an immune response. The findings are in line with those previously reported in the medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases last year. The Chinese Embassy in Thailand said China donated a new batch of 500,000 doses of Sinovac’s vaccine to Thailand. Since the first batch of Chinese vaccines arrived on February 24, China has provided 4.5 million doses of China-made vaccines to Thailand. It was the first ASEAN country to import the Sinovac vaccine on a commercial basis. In Santiago, Chile’s Health Ministry said an updated study showed CoronaVac is 65.3% efficacious in preventing Covid-19. The vaccine’s efficacy in preventing hospitalization rose to 87%; in preventing admission to an intensive care unit, to 90.3%; and in preventing deaths caused by Covid-19, to 86%.

Several Chinese cities have recently started offering residents a single-dose Covid-19 vaccine in addition to the two-dose inactivated vaccines that were already widely used. The one-dose vaccine, developed by CanSino Biologics and the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, is the adenovirus-based viral vector vaccine Ad5-nCoV, whose trade name is Convidecia. The vaccine has also been approved for emergency use in Mexico, Pakistan and Hungary.

China will provide an additional USD3 billion in international aid over the next three years to support Covid-19 response and economic and social recovery in other developing countries, Chinese President Xi Jinping said during a speech at the Global Health Summit via video link from Beijing. The summit in Rome was organized by Italy, the G20 Presidency of 2021, and the European Commission. Xi said China has already supplied 300 million vaccine doses to the world and will provide more.

China has so far administered 497.3 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines. The country has witnessed record daily inoculations since early May, following the latest cases detected in Anhui and Liaoning provinces, but in some places there is a shortage of vaccines. Vaccinations in Guangzhou were suspended on May 22 due to a lack of shots. Authorities said new supplies were scheduled to arrive in the city, and they told local residents to make reservations to be vaccinated as early as possible. This overview is based on reporting by the China Daily, Shanghai Daily and Global Times.