China has expressed its capability to produce one billion doses of the Sinopharm vaccine that has been recently approved in the country.
Reports from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information reveal that the vaccine developed by Beijing Institute of Biological Products, a subsidiary of the state-owned conglomerate Sinopharm has also allocated around 100 million doses for 50 million people in China ahead of the country’s Lunar New Year in February.
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These doses will be administered to high-priority groups in China before travel to the country peaks by next month.
China has also agreed to provide vaccines to other countries. In the UAE, the Sinopharm vaccine is currently being provided for free for all residents, prioritizing the elderly and individuals with chronic diseases.
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To date, China has been developing at least five types of vaccines including inactivated vaccines; adenovirus vector vaccines, protein subunit vaccines, mRNA vaccines and vaccines using attenuated flu virus as vectors. Of these vaccines, only Sinopharm’s inactivated vaccine has revealed its efficacy rate of 79%, as per reports from the South China Morning Post.
Zeng Yixin, deputy director of China’s National Health Commission stated that the government would provide free vaccines for residents in the country, adding that the government encourages everyone to take the jab.
