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Africa China Review Reporter
The World Health Organization (WHO) validated on Tuesday the CoronaVac Covid-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech for emergency use. The good news came at a time developing countries are faced with a huge Vaccine deficit. In Africa alone, less than 5% of the population has so far been vaccinated. Rich countries have been widely criticized for hording COVID-19 vaccines, at a critical time when developing countries are grappling with increasing numbers of COVID-19 infections.
ON May 21 via a video link to the Global Health Summit in Rome, the Chinese President Xi Jinping said that “the pandemic is yet another reminder that we humanity rise and fall together with a shared future.” China has indeed played a leading role in the global fight against COVID-19 by sharing much needed vaccines, expertise, face masks and equipment with the rest of the world.
The efficacy results showed that the Sinovac vaccine prevented symptomatic disease in 51 percent of those vaccinated, and prevented severe Covid-19 and hospitalisation in 100 per cent of the studied population, according to the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE). The CoronaVac vaccine was “found to be safe, effective, and quality-assured following two doses of the inactivated vaccine.”
Unlike some other vaccines, CoronaVac requires no extreme super-cold temperatures. “The easy storage requirements of CoronaVac make it very suitable for low-resource settings,” Tedros said. “It’s now crucial to get these lifesaving tools to the people that need them quickly.”
WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) recommended the vaccine for people over 18. Two doses should be spaced between two and four weeks.
It is hoped that the decision to list the Chinese vaccine for emergency use will give a boost to the Covax initiative, which has been struggling with supply problems.
“The world desperately needs multiple Covid-19 vaccines to address the huge access inequity across the globe,” said Mariangela Simao, the WHO’s assistant director general for access to health products.
“We urge manufacturers to participate in the Covax facility, share their know-how and data and contribute to bringing the pandemic under control,” she said.
China says it has already produced 10 million doses of Covid vaccines for the Covax scheme and that it aims to reach 3 billion doses by the end of the year.
The emergency approval came as the heads of the WHO, the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank appealed for a $50bn (£35bn) investment fund to help end the pandemic.
In a joint statement they said the world had reached a perilous point, and that inequalities in access to vaccines risked prolonging the pandemic, and many more deaths.
The world will only be safe when all countries are safe whether rich or poor. “None is safe until all are safe.”
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