China’s vaccine aid boosts confidence in the global fight against COVID-19

The COVID-19 is still ravaging the world, and cases infected with the omicron variant have been reported in nearly one hundred countries and regions. Controlling the pandemic poses a difficult challenge once again.

Putting the people and their lives first, China has been a committed front-runner in promoting international cooperation in epidemic response, a firm believer in making COVID-19 vaccines a public good and a steadfast advocate for equitable vaccine distribution, advancing the building of a global community of health for all with its commitment and concrete actions.   

China-aided vaccine is like "much-needed rain"

In 2021, China provided over 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations, making it the top vaccine supplier around the world. In the new year, China will continue to fully implement the vaccine equity program COVAX, proactively carry out cooperation in medical research and development and maintain international solidarity in the fight against the pandemic.

As the new year began, a new batch of China-aided COVID-19 vaccines and test kits arrived in Syria. "Syria and China are truly a community with a shared future!" said Syria's Health Minister Hasan al-Ghabash. He acknowledged that China had provided massive anti-pandemic supplies and humanitarian assistance to Syria since the COVID-19 outbreak, which was instrumental in Syria's work on epidemic response and improving people's livelihoods.

On Dec 24, 2021, the Chinese embassy in Madagascar donated anti-pandemic supplies including portable ventilators, oxygen generators, masks and goggles to the country's Ministry of Public Health. Madagascar's Minister of Public Health Zely Arivelo Randriamanantany extended gratitude to China for its help in his country's vaccination campaign.

On the same day, the second batch of China-aided vaccines arrived in Managua, capital of Nicaragua. Laureano Ortega, adviser to the Nicaraguan president, thanked the Chinese government in his speech and said the vaccines will help Nicaragua in the fight against the pandemic and safeguard the health and lives of its people.

"The two countries worked together against the pandemic, carried forward the spirit of a community with a shared future, and set a model of mutually beneficial cooperation between countries," Myanmese Minister of Health and Sports Thet Khaing Win said when a new batch of China-aided Sinovac vaccines arrived at Yangon International Airport in Myanmar on Dec 22, 2021.

The fifth batch of China-aided vaccines arrived in Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, on Dec 20, 2021. Zimbabwean Vice President and Minister of Health Constantino Chiwenga said at the handover ceremony that the Chinese vaccines greatly boosted Zimbabwean people's confidence in the fight against the pandemic and were of great significance to Zimbabwe, which was facing the challenge of an epidemic resurgence.

"The Chinese vaccines are like much-needed rain," said Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of Philippine government's measures to combat COVID-19. The fifth batch of 2 million China-aided vaccine doses arrived in Manila, capital of the Philippines, and will serve as booster shots in the country's second round of vaccination program.

Chinese vaccines played an important role in enhancing immunity and saving lives

China has always honored its commitment to provide more safe and effective vaccines to the world, especially to developing countries, in order to close the global immunization gap.

Senior adviser to the director general of the World Health Organization Dr Bruce Aylward said on Jan 6, when commenting on progress in the COVAX initiative, that Chinese vaccines have played an important role in enhancing global immunity and saving lives. According to Aylward, China had delivered over 180 million doses of Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines to 49 countries and regions under the COVAX initiative, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the total amount supplied.

Just two days before Aylward's comment, WHO official Abdi Mahamud said studies have shown that the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines are able to prevent severe conditions and hospitalization caused by the Omicron variant, and are considered effective to offer continued protection to hospitalized patients with severe conditions.

Chinese vaccines have protected not only neighbors in Asia, but also friends across continents. At the end of 2021, the United Arab Emirates approved the emergency use of the new recombinant protein vaccine developed by China's Sinopharm as booster shots, saying the government's research on the vaccine has shown the vaccine enhanced immunity to the virus and was potent against COVID-19 variants.

Bolivia recently started administering China's Sinopharm vaccines for children between five and 11 years old, which will cover nearly 1.65 million people. Bolivian Minister of Health Jeyson Auza said that they believe "the vaccine is an inactive vaccine made by mature traditional technology which is safer and has less side effects", based on their long-time and extensive research, related reports and positive results of  vaccinations among children in several countries.

Clinical trials of a number of Chinese vaccines are conducted around the world. Sinovac from China recently launched phase three trials of the immunogenicity, safety and efficacy of the CoronaVac vaccine among children between six months and 17 years of age in South Africa, and no serious adverse reactions were reported.

The Lancet recently released a report on the final efficacy and interim safety analyses of the phase three trial of the Ad5-nCoV vaccine developed by the Chinese firm CanSino Biologics. It said the efficacy against severe disease in participants beginning 14 days after immunization was 96 percent and the overall efficacy was 63.7 percent, reaching the vaccine efficacy standard recommended by the WHO. And there was no case of severe adverse reaction to the vaccine.

The Chinese company Sinovac and IQVIA Brazil jointly released a safety profile of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant and postpartum women in Brazil. During the research period, Sinovac administered over 250,000 doses of Coronavac vaccine to pregnant and postpartum women in the country, and results showed that the vaccine demonstrated a good safety record and had a lower occurrence of adverse reactions compared with other vaccines.

China is committed to improving local healthcare services

From Southeast Asia to Africa, from Middle East to Latin America, China has been promoting international cooperation in epidemic response and healthcare through vaccine donation, technology transfers, cooperative production and talent training.

Mostafa Sayed, an Egyptian young man, learned Chinese at Cairo University for four years. His career in tourism was bottlenecked since the outbreak. By chance, he became the interpreter for a Chinese expert team sent by the Chinese company Sinovac to Egypt to help establish a local vaccine factory. "This is the most meaningful interpretation job I've done because I'm part of the efforts in establishing a vaccine factory," he said.

The localized vaccine factory jointly built by China and Egypt started operation in September last year, with an annual production capacity of 200 million doses, enough to meet the country's vaccine needs. Egypt is now building another vaccine plant, which will be the biggest vaccine plant in the Middle East and North Africa region with an annual production capacity of 1 billion doses upon operation.

In terms of technology transfer, China is cooperating with 20 developing countries in COVID-19 vaccine production. The foundation of China's first vaccine plant in Europe was laid in Serbia in September last year, where the locally-made Sinopharm vaccines will meet local vaccine needs as well as those of other countries in the Balkan region. In Chile, the vaccine plant invested by China's Sinovac will be put into operation in April this year, with an annual production capacity of 60 million doses. These Chinese vaccine plants across the world are contributing in a tangible way to the accessibility and affordability of the vaccines in developing countries.

China's 22nd medical team to Zambia recently donated anti-pandemic medical supplies to Levy Mwanawasa University Teaching Hospital in the country. George Magwende, permanent secretary in Zambia's Ministry of Health, said those supplies will help the hospital better prevent and control the local epidemic and bring up its medical service quality. "The Chinese medical team has been training medical staff in Zambia to improve our overall medical capacity," he said.

A webinar on infectious diseases co-hosted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) under the Health Ministry of Brazil was held recently. Research and development teams in both countries shared their views on topics including the COVID-19 prevention and control, frontline science research on infectious diseases, clinical treatment plans and industrial cooperation routes. Nísia Trindade Lima, president of Fiocruz, highly applauded China's contribution to the global fight against the pandemic and extended sincere appreciation for its strong support in Brazil's national vaccination campaign. "We look forward to continuing vaccination cooperation with China, contributing to the reduction of global immunization gap and strengthening talent exchanges on scientific research as well as exchanges in such areas as healthcare supervision and technological innovation", she said.