BEIJING: From front-line workers to heads of state, more people around the world are praising and welcoming Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines.
“Chinese vaccines have been proved to be safe and reliable,” said Laotian Minister of Health Bounkong Syhavong upon receiving Chinese-donated Sinopharm vaccines in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, on Monday.
At about the same time across the Pacific, Peruvian President Francisco Sagasti expressed his appreciation to China as he welcomed the arrival of the first 300,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine from China. Likewise, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera thanked China on Jan 28, and Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen expressed his gratitude for donated vaccine on Sunday.
Peru’s next vaccine shipment is scheduled to arrive in Lima over the weekend, Sagasti said. Health professionals, armed forces members, police officers, firefighters and health workers will be given priority for inoculation in the country, where 42,000 people have died of COVID-19.
Sinopharm’s vaccine and that of Chinese company Sinovac are at a “very advanced stage” of the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing Procedure assessment. China is honoring its commitment to making vaccines a global public good, as emphasized by President Xi Jinping, and has joined the WHO’s global COVAX program to provide 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
Chinese vaccines have been used to vaccinate millions of people in China as well as in dozens of countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong Namhong noted on Sunday.
“According to information I received, these vaccines have had efficacy and no severe side effect,” he said. “Many leaders of these countries have been inoculated voluntarily with these Chinese vaccines.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Monday that China is providing vaccine aid to 53 developing countries, including Pakistan. China also has exported vaccines or is in the process of exporting vaccines to 22 countries, he added.
Nawal Al-Kaabi, principal investigator of the phase three clinical trial for a COVID-19 vaccine in the United Arab Emirates, said the UAE together with Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan, where Chinese-made vaccines are also being rolled out is studying the long-term effects of the vaccine in line with standard safety protocols.
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
