Advertisement
Coronavirus: most cases in Chinese airport cluster were vaccinated
- Nanjing outbreak is mainly ‘breakthrough’ infections, according to doctor treating patients
- He says vaccines still offer protection and urges people to keep up measures like wearing masks
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
15
Most of the cases in China’s latest Covid-19 cluster – at an airport in the eastern city of Nanjing – had been vaccinated, according to a doctor treating the patients.
These so-called breakthrough infections among people who have been fully vaccinated have been seen in China before and are becoming more frequent worldwide as new variants like Delta continue to spread. Health experts say such cases do not mean the vaccines are ineffective, but urge people to keep up measures like wearing masks, and some advise booster shots for high-risk groups.
Health authorities in Nanjing, Jiangsu province said there were 16 confirmed cases and another 12 people had tested positive but were asymptomatic as of Thursday. Most of them are cleaners at the Nanjing Lukou International Airport.
Advertisement
Yang Yi, a doctor with Southeast University in Nanjing and deputy head of an expert panel treating Covid-19 patients in Jiangsu, told reporters on Thursday that all of the patients had been vaccinated except one, who is under 18. But he stressed that the vaccines were still having an effect.
“These were all mild cases,” Yang said. “Although they haven’t been ill for long, based on what we’ve observed in the recent outbreaks in Guangdong and Ruili [in Yunnan province], there is a significantly lower chance of [someone who is vaccinated] getting severely ill and the course of the disease is also shorter,” he said.
Advertisement
“So this shows that the vaccines are still protecting people and we urge you to take precautions and continue to wear a mask even after you get vaccinated.”
Advertisement
Select Voice
Select Speed
1.00x