Coronavirus: a flurry of international orders for Chinese vaccines

Name: China approves first domestically developed Covid-19 vaccine
Uploaded: 2021-01-01T13:00:08.000Z
Duration: 1 min 35 s
Description: China approves first domestically developed Covid-19 vaccine

At least 10 countries have signed up for the shots from Sinopharm and other providers

It’s an opportunity for Beijing to burnish its global reputation but it all depends on transparency, observers say

Reading Time:3 minutes

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Supplying vaccines could bolster China’s reputation around the world. Photo: Xinhua

Simone McCarthy

Published: 9:00pm, 1 Jan 2021Updated: 1:12am, 2 Jan 2021

Pakistan and Hungary were among the string of countries lining up to order coronavirus vaccines from China as Chinese regulators approved the country’s first Covid-19 shot.

The vaccine, developed under state-owned Sinopharm, was approved for conditional market use on Thursday after reporting 79 per cent efficacy against the disease in interim results, according to Chinese health officials who gave few details about how the assessment was made.

The approval is a milestone for Beijing, which has played up its plans to make its vaccines a “global public good” and could make a big difference to the very limited supplies, according to analysts.

At least 10 countries in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia have signed up for doses from China’s vaccine developers, which also include Sinovac Biotech and CanSino Biologics.

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China approves first domestically developed Covid-19 vaccine

Pakistan joined that list with an announcement on Thursday, saying it planned to buy 1.2 million doses from the company. The two-dose jabs, enough to cover 600,000 people, are the country’s first official confirmation of a vaccine purchase.

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