WHO Approves China’s Sinovac COVID-19 Vaccine For Global Use

Picture courtesy Xinhua

New Delhi: The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday, gave authorisation to China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. The WHO recommended its use for people aged 18 and older in a two-dose schedule with a spacing of two to four weeks between shots.

The emergency use listing granted to Sinovac’s shot is the second given to a Chinese COVID vaccine. Earlier in May, the state-owned Sinopharm Group Co. secured WHO’s nod for emergency use.

Sinovac has shipped 380 million doses to countries and regions ranging from Hong Kong to Zimbabwe since late last year, Hindustan Times reported.

The shot, dubbed CoronaVac, has the lowest efficacy rate reported from clinical trials among the frontrunner wave of vaccines. It was found to be just 50.7% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID in a trial in Brazil, barely crossing the minimum threshold required by drug regulators around the world. However, in a recent study of around 130,000 Indonesian health workers, it protected 94% against symptomatic infection, 96% against hospitalization, and 98% against death, the report added.