More Asian nations embrace Chinese vaccines to fight COVID-19
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The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines arrive at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, Feb. 24, 2021. (Xinhua/Zhang Keren)
When a plane carrying Thailand's first batch of COVID-19 vaccines from China's Sinovac landed at an airport in Bangkok on Wednesday, people waiting on the tarmac cheered and applauded.
"Thank you to the People's Republic of China for delivering the first batch of vaccines this month and the following batches in the subsequent months," said Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, when he welcomed the vaccines' arrival at the airport.
Prayut expressed his gratitude while a refrigerated container, with a banner reading "COVID-19 vaccines, returning smiles to Thailand" written in Thai, was lowered from the plane.
The Chinese vaccines would be distributed to 13 provinces of Thailand to prioritize health care workers and those most at risk, while more vaccine shipments are expected to arrive in March and April.
Thailand, known as the Land of Smiles, is heavily reliant on tourism but it recently has seen a drop in tourism due to COVID-19. The country welcomed about 40 million foreign tourists in 2019, but only 6.7 million last year.
It is widely expected that the COVID-19 vaccines will be a game-changer. Prayut hopes the vaccine would contribute to the recovery of the tourism sector through easing restrictive measures, such as exempting vaccinated tourists from the two-week mandatory quarantine.
The arrival of the Sinovac vaccines marks a significant move to jumpstart the vaccination process in Thailand and thus catch up with other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said Tang Zhimin, director of China ASEAN Studies at the Bangkok-based Panyapiwat Institute of Management.
Elsewhere in the ASEAN region, where COVID-19 has claimed more than 50,000 lives from over 2.4 million cases, countries are placing their trust in China as they have ordered, received or approved the emergency use of Chinese vaccines.
Among the biggest takers of the Chinese vaccines is Indonesia, which has ordered a large number of doses of the Sinovac vaccine.
"We should ensure the quality, safety and effectiveness. That's the first one. Then the second one is, of course, they have to be listed in the WHO (World Health Organization) recommendation," said Siti Nadia Tarmizi, the Indonesian government's spokesperson for COVID-19 vaccination.
In a livestream, Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Jan. 13 rolled up his sleeves to receive his first shot of the Sinovac vaccine, kicking off the nation's mass inoculation campaign.
The massive vaccination program would help Indonesia achieve herd immunity after 181.5 million people, or around two thirds of the country's population, are inoculated within 15 months, said Indonesia's Deputy Minister of Health Dante Saksono.
The largest economy in Southeast Asia is pinning its hope on the mass vaccination drive to curb its soaring cases, which have exceeded 1.3 million, and revitalize its virus-hit economy.
On Saturday, Malaysia also received its first delivery of the Sinovac vaccine, days after the country kicked off its inoculation program, which aims to inoculate at least 80 percent of the country's total population.
Viruses do not respect borders and only by cooperating in the spirit of solidarity can the international community overcome the pandemic, said Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Ouyang Yujing.
As
COVID-19 is still raging and countries around the world are scrambling
to obtain vaccines, which are in short supply, China has promised to
make Chinese COVID-19 vaccines a global public good.
Beijing starts vaccinating residents above 60 as nation cautiously expands inoculation
A supermarket in Beijing. Photo: VCG
Some Beijing communities have rolled out COVID-19 vaccinations for people aged 60 and above, the Global Times learned, amid doubts why the Chinese mainland delayed providing the elderly with vaccines while Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) gives the group top priority.
Chinese
experts explained that vaccination priority varies in the mainland and
HKSAR based on different epidemic situations. Mainland authorities
focused on preventing imported cases so they gave priority to people
working in areas where imported cases would most likely occur, they
explained.
A staff member of the Yong'anmen community office in
Beijing told the Global Times on Monday that COVID-19 vaccinations for
seniors over 60 years old have already begun in the area.
Local
senior citizens can sign up for their shots at the neighborhood
committee, which will arrange a vaccination for them. Elderly residents
from other provinces living in the neighborhoods can also apply,
according to the staff member.
A screenshot of a notice in a
Chaoyang district community asking residents of 60 years old and above
to register for vaccination also spread on social media over the
weekend.
The Global Times reached the community office on Monday.
An office staff member did not deny the information, but she refused to
disclose details.
But it seems not all Beijing communities have started the work.
Two
residents separately living in the Daxing and Xicheng districts reached
by the Global Times on Monday said they had not received such a notice
from local authorities.
They expressed worries over the physical
condition of their senior family members, saying "there is no rush in
getting the shots" as the epidemic in Beijing has been controlled.
The
Global Times also reached disease control and prevention authorities in
Shanghai, and Jiaxing and Yiwu in East China's Zhejiang Province, all
of whom said they have not started vaccinations for people above 60.
The
Chinese mainland kicked off mass vaccinations for high-risk groups in
December 2020, with two domestic vaccines separately developed by
Sinopharm and Sinovac. Only people aged between 18 and 59 could get
vaccinated, according to instructions from the national disease control
and prevention authority.
Tao Lina, a Shanghai-based vaccine
expert, told the Global Times on Monday that more places across the
country possibly would start vaccinating people aged 60 and above in
March after the two sessions - China's most important annual political events.
Doubts
arose recently over the necessity of the restrictions on the elderly to
access COVID-19 vaccines after China's Hong Kong region started mass
vaccinations with Sinovac vaccines on Friday where people aged above 60
were included in the priority groups together with medical workers and
cross-border truck drivers.
A report of the Financial Times on
Sunday said that age restrictions on the use of the Sinopharm and
Sinovac shots have contributed to slowing the rollout of mass
vaccinations on the Chinese mainland.
Jin Dongyan, a professor
at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Hong Kong,
told the Global Times on Monday that the Hong Kong regional government
decided to provide the elderly with vaccines as they are one of the high
risk groups to the novel coronavirus.
The decision was made
after a local expert committee reviewed the materials Sinovac submitted
and found no extra risk for the elderly group to accept the vaccines
compared with people aged between 18-59, Jin said.
But mainland authorities have other considerations on the group based on the current epidemic situation on the mainland.
Wang
Bin, an official from China's National Health Commission, previously
told media that the age restrictions were made based on the
anti-epidemic policy centering on preventing imported cases.
Given
the policy, mainland authorities gave priority to people working where
imported virus would most likely occur, such as the cold-chain
transportation industry and the frontier inspection stations, Wang
explained.
A Beijing-based vaccines expert told the Global Times
on Monday on condition of anonymity that it is better to stay cautious
about using current vaccines on older people as the current COVID-19
vaccines are not the best products yet, and China's successful control
of the epidemic makes it unnecessary to take such risk. Not to mention
the reports of elderly people dying after accepting vaccines in Europe and the US.
Although
no evidence has been found to connect the deaths to the vaccines, it is
better not to make old people take the risk, given the fact the
epidemic has been controlled on the mainland, the expert noted.
The
FT's Sunday report claimed that China is far behind other big economies
in forming herd immunity - it was 2.9 doses per 100 residents who have
received the vaccine on the Chinese mainland as of early February.
Jin
expressed similar worries, noting that, considering the target to
vaccinate 60-70 percent of population to establish herd immunity, the
current progress of the mainland's vaccination program is probably a
little slow.
If some places, where the epidemic used to be
serious or vaccination proceeded fast, such as New Delhi and Israel,
could reach herd immunity by the end of the year and resume
international travel, I am afraid an "immunity gap" would occur between
the mainland and these places, pushing up the risk of imported cases to
the mainland, Jin warned.
However, the Beijing-based anonymous expert denied the accusation by the FT.
"I
don't think our vaccination is slow. We administered the second most
doses following the US and the number is about four times that of India,
which has a similar population with China," he said, noting that "our
rate is actually really fast."
As to the "immunity gap," the
expert said that even Israel, the country with the fasted vaccination
program, still reports high daily new cases, so it is still too early to
say that China will lag behind by the end of the year.
The
Chinese mainland has administrated 52.52 million doses COVID-19 vaccines
as of the end of February, inoculating about 3.56 percent of its
population, Chinese top respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan said at an
online forum on Monday night. Zhong said that China plans to administer
40 doses per 100 people against COVID-19 by June.
According to
the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 75,236,003 doses have
been administrated in the US as of February 28.
Indian media reported that 13,756,940 COVID-19 vaccine doses had been given in the country as of February 27.
China
performed the best in controlling the epidemic, so mass emergency
vaccination is not a priority here. The country is also improving its
vaccines while carrying out mass vaccination according to its own pace,
according to the expert.
Tao noted that it is also very likely for China to realize herd immunity
in the second half of the year after the central government shifts
focus from international provisions to domestic vaccination, given the
successful practice that the mainland authorities finished vaccinating
100 million children between September 11 and 20, 2010, to successfully
prevent a potential measles epidemic.
Source: http://s.scio.gov.cn/wz/scio/detail2_2021_03/01/2651691.html;
http://enapp.globaltimes.cn/#/article/1216958
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