It is probable that China will reach 80 percent COVID-19 vaccines coverage by the end of this year, achieving herd immunity, the country’s top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan said in a virtual speech at a health conference on Friday.
“The efficacy of Chinese vaccines is around 70 percent. Only if more than 80 percent of the country’s entire population are vaccinated, can it establish herd immunity effectively. China’s vaccination rate [of the population] could probably reach more than 80 percent by the end of this year,” Zhong said at a conference under the 5th China-Arab States Expo held in Northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on Friday.
Research focused on Guangzhou COVID-19 flare-ups in May showed that the protection rate of Chinese inactivated vaccines against Delta variant nears 60 percent, and 70 percent against moderate symptoms and 100 percent against severe cases, Zhong noted.
The latest data also indicated that the antibody levels increase by more than 10 times after the third dose vaccination following a 6-month-gap from the second dose of China-developed inactivated vaccines, he said.
Citing a paper published on Lancet, Zhong said the efficacy of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine in Turkey reached 83.5 percent without any report of serious adverse reaction or death, demonstrating the effective protection and safety offered by Sinovac vaccines.
Even if the protection of domestically developed vaccines against the Delta variant is slightly lessened based on laboratory research, they are still “very effective,” the top Chinese epidemiologist said.
With the growing vaccination rates across the globe, doubts about the vaccines’ durability have also been increasing.
Zhong noted Israel remains the country with the highest vaccination rate and had seen a steep fall in the number of new COVID-19 cases. Based on initial results, the protection rate of Pfizer m-RNA vaccines used in Israel hit 95 percent, but dropped to 39 percent half year later, Zhong noted. It proved that the efficacy of mRNA vaccines can last half a year.
The US confirmed cases also saw rebound in August, which Zhong estimated is also linked to the protection provided by vaccines declining six months after vaccination.
Many countries are now exploring on how to strengthen the vaccines’ efficiency, including trialing a third dose after six months, following the second dose, he added.
Zhong Nanshan, Photo: Xinhua
