{"id":108151,"date":"2021-01-01T10:27:57","date_gmt":"2021-01-01T02:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=108151"},"modified":"2021-01-01T10:27:59","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T02:27:59","slug":"covid-19-chinas-first-vaccine-hustled-to-market-as-race-to-inoculate-1-3bn-speeds-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=108151","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19: China\u2019s first vaccine hustled to market as race to inoculate 1.3bn speeds up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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BEIJING, Jan 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — China has granted \u201cconditional\u201d market approval to a Sinopharm vaccine with a reported 79 percent efficacy rate against Covid-19, health authorities said, a major stride towards inoculating the world\u2019s largest population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sinopharm jab, which has surged ahead of a raft of Chinese competitors during Phase 3 trials, could signal a breakthrough in the battle to squash the pandemic in Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 4.5 million Chinese, mainly health workers and workers destined for overseas jobs, have already been administered largely unproven emergency vaccines, according to authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, Sinopharm announced its leading candidate had a 79.34 percent efficacy rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is lower than rival jabs developed in the West by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna \u2014 with 95 and 94 percent rates respectively \u2014 but still a game-changer for China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chen Shifei, deputy commissioner of the National Medical Products Administration, told reporters his agency had granted a \u201cconditional listing\u201d to Sinopharm\u2019s vaccine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A conditional listing helps hustle emergency drugs to market in cases when clinical trials are yet to meet normal standards but indicate they will work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe known benefits of Sinopharm\u2019s new inactivated coronavirus vaccine are bigger than the known and potential risks,\u201d Chen added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The listing allows the government to \u201cextend vaccination to high-risk groups, those susceptible to a severe viral infection\u2026 and the elderly,\u201d Zeng Yixin, Vice Minister of the National Health Commission told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But China faces the unprecedented challenge of getting vaccines to a population of more than 1.3 billion people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe general view is you have to vaccinate 60 to 70 percent to establish universal protection,\u201d Zeng added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beijing plans to vaccinate millions this winter in the run-up to Lunar New Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m convinced \u2014 and please be convinced \u2014 that the production of Covid-19 vaccines can meet the demand of large-scale vaccination we have in China,\u201d Mao Junfeng, head of Consumer Goods Industry Department added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has also pledged to swiftly share its vaccines with lesser developed countries at a \u201cfair price\u201d, as it seeks global leadership in the recovery from a pandemic which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a winter wave of virus infections batters much of the world, spurring fresh lockdowns and grim spikes in death tolls, attention has returned to China\u2019s management of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has broadly stamped out the virus inside its borders, introducing swift local lockdowns and mass testing when cases emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beijing has been at pains to retool the pandemic story in its favour, touting the fast reflexes of its Communist leadership in locking down the country and restarting the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China is forecast to be the only major economy to post positive growth this year. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIJING, Jan 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — China has granted \u201cconditional\u201d market approval to a Sinopharm vaccine with a reported 79 percent efficacy rate against Covid-19, health authorities said, a major stride towards inoculating the world\u2019s largest population. The Sinopharm jab, which has surged ahead of a raft of Chinese competitors during Phase 3 trials, could signal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":108152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[215],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108151"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=108151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/108152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=108151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=108151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=108151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}