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CoronaVac, a vaccine by Sinovac Biotech, may only be a little more than 50% effective in preventing COVID-19, according to clinical trial results in Brazil. While this clears the threshold for regulatory approval, it is a disappointing result for countries that already bought tens of millions of doses of the product.
The province surrounding Beijing is responding rapidly to a new outbreak of COVID-19, hoping to stop the spread of the virus before travel for Chinese New Year commences.
Chinese regulators gave approval for a mass public rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine by Sinopharm on December 30, 2020. Meanwhile, authorities worked to expand an emergency use authorization program that has already delivered millions of experimental vaccine doses.
The Chang’e-5 probe has landed in Inner Mongolia with a cargo of lunar rocks and soil.
Countries including Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey, and Chile are clamoring for doses of CoronaVac, the vaccine candidate made by Sinovac Biotech. Meanwhile, the maker of another of China’s leading vaccine candidates, Sinopharm, applied last month for market approval.
The Chang’e-5 lunar lander touched down on the Moon today, and will spend two days collecting two kilograms of rocks before returning to Earth in mid-December. If it is successful, China will become the third nation to retrieve lunar samples.
Five Chinese coronavirus vaccines are in Phase 3 clinical trials, but China has not waited for trials to be complete to inject about one million people since July. Preliminary data suggests that China’s vaccines may be less inoculating than those by Pfizer and Moderna.
After a 17-year-old garment factory worker in Kashgar, Xinjiang tested positive for COVID-19, authorities quickly tested all 4.75 million residents of the Kashgar area, finding 164 cases, all without symptoms.
A small COVID-19 cluster has emerged in Qingdao, China, breaking the country’s nearly two-month streak of no locally transmitted symptomatic cases. All nine million Qingdao residents will be screened for the virus this week in response.
China has already vaccinated vast numbers of essential workers and state-owned enterprise employees without a conventional clinical trial process. As soon as this month, however, Beijing may give official approval to a clinically tested vaccine, and begin public rollout in November.