‘Chinese coronavirus vaccine efficacy is 91.25%, likely to increase’

A Covid-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech is 91.25% effective and the rate is likely to increase based on late-stage trial data, Turkish researchers said on Thursday, as the country becomes the second trial site to produce results for the Chinese candidate.

The researchers, part of the government’s science council, said no major symptoms were detected during CoronaVac’s trials in Turkey, apart from one person who became allergic.

Turkey had agreed to procure 50 million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac by Dec 11 but the shipment had been delayed.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said the vaccines would arrive in Turkey on Monday, adding that Turkey would vaccinate some 9 million people in the first group, starting with health workers.

Thousands of volunteers in Pakistan have participated in final-stage clinical trials of a Chinese-made vaccine for the coronavirus.

It is the first time Pakistan has participated in such a trial, which comes amid a string of positive vaccine announcements by Western pharmaceutical companies.

Pakistan’s de facto health minister Dr Faisal Sultan said earlier this month that they were negotiating with China and Russia, among others, to procure coronavirus vaccines.

“We are in talks with China, Russia and some other countries for procurement of the [Covid-19] vaccine after narrowing down our priority list,” Faisal Sultan, special assistant to the prime minister on health, told Anadolu Agency.

The vaccine, he said, would be available in Pakistan sometime between January and March next year, and administered to health workers and senior citizens in the first phase.

The Chinese vaccine is also undergoing phase 3 trials — or large-scale testing on humans — in several other nations including China, Russia, Chile, Argentina and Saudi Arabia.

(With input from News Desk)