DM Monitoring
GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) validated on Tuesday the CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac for emergency use, which made it the second Chinese vaccine included in the WHO Emergency Use Listing after the previous one developed by another Chinese manufacturer Sinopharm.
Experts believe the approval of the two Chinese vaccines, at a time when the world is still struggling to contain the virus with many countries and regions in dire need of vaccines, will help China make greater contribution to the global fight against the pandemic.
According to the WHO, 352,685 new cases were reported on June 1 across the world, bringing the global tally to 170,426,245, while COVID-19 deaths worldwide reached 3,548,628. As of May 31, a total of 1,579,416,705 vaccine doses had been administered.
The WHO’s announcement on Tuesday about the validation of the Sinovac vaccine is good news for the whole world, especially for countries that are in serious shortage of vaccines. Earlier last month, the Sinopharm vaccine, an inactivated vaccine, was validated by the WHO for emergency use.
“The Sinovac-CoronaVac product is an inactivated vaccine. Its easy storage requirements make it very manageable and particularly suitable for low-resource settings,” said a statement issued by the WHO.
“The world desperately needs multiple COVID-19 vaccines to address the huge access inequity across the globe,” WHO Assistant Director-General for Access to Medicines and Health Products Mariangela Simao said in the statement.
“We urge manufacturers to participate in the COVAX Facility, share their knowhow and data and contribute to bringing the pandemic under control.”
Delegates who attended the just-concluded 74th World Health Assembly (WHA) also called for increasing vaccine supply and ensuring fair access to vaccines for countries around the world, especially low-income countries.
Following the WHO’s announcement of the validation of the Sinovac vaccine, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted that the vaccine is widely used in Turkey, and “we will continue to bring every vaccine with proven safety and effectiveness to our citizens.”
Turkey began its vaccination drive with China’s Sinovac vaccine on Jan. 14, with priority given to healthcare professionals and the elderly. Until the beginning of April, the country had solely used Sinovac’s jabs.
The WHO’s authorization of the Sinovac vaccine for emergency use is “very positive,” Lu Mengji, professor at the Institute of Virology of the University Hospital of Essen in Germany, told media.
“It will play an important role in the global fight against the pandemic.”
