By Kevin Shalvey
December 19, 2020
- Five COVID-19 vaccines made in China have entered the final sprint for state approval, said officials in a press conference on Saturday, according to Xinhua News Agency.
- More than a million Chinese citizens have already been inoculated by vaccines approved for emergency use.
- “This will gradually forge a barrier of immunity among the public to stop the spread of COVID-19 in China,” said Cui Gang, of the National Health Commission, according to Xinhua.
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Five COVID-19 vaccines made in China have entered the “final sprint” for state approval, said officials in a press conference on Saturday, according to Xinhua News Agency.
The vaccines are moving quickly through the approvals process, with phase 3 human testing on the horizon, Zheng Zhongwei, of the National Health Commission, told to The South China Morning Post.
“If the data meets the relevant requirements, China’s drug regulatory authority will issue approval for market launch, or launch with conditions,” Zheng told reporters in a Saturday briefing in Beijing.
The country also released plans for a two-step vaccine rollout, saying it would inoculate “priority” risk groups this winter and next spring, before rolling out to the wider public market in the spring, according to Xinhua, a quasi-state media outlet.