China offers mid-trial coronavirus vaccines to aviation industry workers

Name: Russia approves ‘world’s first’ Covid-19 vaccine, President Vladimir Putin says
Uploaded: 2020-09-03T07:46:01.000Z
Duration: 2 min 3 s
Description: Russia approves ‘world’s first’ Covid-19 vaccine, President Vladimir Putin says

Airline staff and border inspectors among those to be offered experimental vaccines, aviation regulator says

Emergency use programme is intended to boost immunity of exposed groups, with four Chinese vaccines in final stages of trials

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Staff at three Chinese airlines are among those who can volunteer to take the vaccine. Photo: EPA-EFE

Reuters

Published: 3:46pm, 3 Sep 2020Updated: 8:42pm, 25 Nov 2020

China has offered experimental coronavirus vaccines to aviation industry workers, according to a regulatory notice issued by the country’s aviation regulator, in a push to inoculate high-risk groups to prevent a possible resurgence as economies reopen.

With four Chinese Covid-19 vaccines being in the final stage of human trials, China launched the emergency use vaccine programme in July, hoping to boost the immunity of groups such as border inspectors and medical industry workers.

Frontline workers at Chinese airlines, airports, China National Aviation Fuel Group and TravelSky Technology will be provided with a candidate vaccine to use on a voluntary basis, the notice from China’s aviation regulator shows.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China has asked these sectors and firms to compile a list of personal information of employees willing to take the vaccine, the notice adds.

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The vaccination is “in response to a possible second wave of infections erupting in the fall and winter, and to the huge pressure facing our work preventing imported cases as Western countries reopen despite the pandemic”, according to the notice.