Filenews 16 February 2021
China's Ambassador to Nicosia Liu Yantao told the Cyprus News Agency that his country is conducting clinical trials for 16 vaccines against COVID-19 disease, adding that Chinese vaccines can be stored at 8 degrees Celsius, making it much easier to transport and distribute them.
Asked how long it would take for delivery if a country ordered Chinese vaccines today, he said the delivery time depends on the quantity ordered and the order of the order, noting that Cyprus is a country friend to China and that Beijing always does its best for friends in need.
"The positive thing about Chinese vaccines is that they can be stored at 8 degrees Celsius. It is obviously much easier to transport and distribute," he said.
Asked if manufacturers applied for approval of their vaccines in the EU, he said that "based on what I know, there are still no negotiations between manufacturers and the EU" but noted that Chinese manufacturers are open to all.
Noting that Austria, the Czech Republic and other EU Member States express an interest in Chinese vaccines, he said this means they want safe vaccines as soon as possible and for as many people as possible, regardless of who developed them.
He said that according to China's Ministry of Science and Technology, China is conducting clinical trials of 16 vaccines against COVID-19 disease, seven of which have entered phase III trials and two have been approved for public use in China.
China, he added in his statements to the CYPE, is expected to produce 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines this year. Among them, the Sinovac Biotech vaccine and Sinopharm are based on technology with an inactivated virus, one of the safest methods that has been shown to cause less severe reactions.
In terms of efficacy, he said that statistically, Chinese vaccines vary in their effectiveness, depending on how long the clinical trials were done and how extensively they have been tested.
He said that in China, for example, Sinopharm has already been used in the mass vaccination programme and more than 24 million doses have been administered. He added that it is about 79.34% effective based on data from the previous month. He also said that Brazil stated that China's CoronaVac is 78% effective against mild to severe cases, while Turkey stated that CoronaVac is about 91% effective. The UAE also reported an 86% efficacy rate for China's Sinopharm vaccine.
"All these numbers have exceeded the 50% threshold set by the WHO. At present, Chinese vaccines mainly target people between the age of 18 and 60," he said.
As for the countries that use Chinese vaccines, he said that countries such as Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, Laos and Pakistan have granted an emergency permit for China's CoronaVac, while at least 28 countries have reached a purchase agreement with China. He noted that Serbia was the first European country to use a Chinese vaccine for mass use.
The Ambassador said that the WHO is evaluating two Chinese vaccines for possible use due to an emergency and that China will provide 10 million doses of vaccine to COVAX, a who-backed global vaccine exchange initiative that Sinovac, Sinopharm and CanSino have applied to participate in.
"China will continue to work with its partners to make COVID-19 vaccines a global public good, as officially promised by the Chinese President," the Ambassador concluded.
Source: eyenews/KYPE
