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In China, the price of the vaccine will be affordable for the general public, Zheng added. (Proceedings)
Beijing:
The World Health Organization supported China’s campaign to vaccinate certain people against the coronavirus in July, while clinical trials were still ongoing, a Chinese health official said on Friday, although some experts have expressed concern about the measure.
China launched its emergency program in July, after communicating with the WHO in late June, according to Zheng Zhongwei, an official with the National Health Commission.
The vaccine has been administered to hundreds of thousands of essential workers and other limited groups of people considered to be at high risk of infection, despite the fact that its efficacy and safety had not been fully established as phase 3 clinical trials were incomplete, resulting in that raises concern among experts.
“At the end of June, the State Council of China approved a plan of the emergency use program for the COVID-19 vaccine,” Zheng told a press conference.
“After approval, on June 29, we contacted the relevant representatives of the WHO China Office and obtained the support and understanding of the WHO,” Zheng said.
Countries have autonomy to issue emergency use authorizations for any health product in accordance with national laws and regulations, Dr. Mariangela Simão, WHO deputy director general, said at a press conference in Geneva on Friday.
WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said earlier this month that emergency use authorization for the coronavirus vaccine is a “temporary fix” and that the long-term solution is to complete phase 3 trials. .
Beijing has not released all the details of its emergency use program.
At least three candidate vaccines, including two developed by the state-backed China National Biotec Group (CNBG) and one from Sinovac Biotech, all in Phase 3 trials abroad, are included in the emergency use program.
A fourth experimental vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics was approved for use in the Chinese military in June.
China’s annual COVID-19 vaccine production capacity is expected to reach 610 million doses by the end of 2020 and 1 billion doses by 2021, Zheng said.
In China, the price of the vaccine will be affordable for the general public, Zheng added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated channel.)
