Iran Press/Asia: Yin Weidong, the chief executive officer of the Beijing-based vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech, told state broadcaster CCTV that Sinovac has carried out a clinical study on the minor population, which started at the beginning of this year, with the first and second phase clinical trials completed.
“Hundreds of cases showed that after vaccination, the group three to 17 years old is as safe as the 18-year-old adult group.”
Although other countries have approved the use of vaccines for minors, nowhere else has extended it to children so young.
The World Health Organisation gave Sinovac’s product an emergency use listing for use on adults on Tuesday, after approving another Chinese vaccine, developed by Sinopharm, last month.
There are relatively few studies on the efficacy or potential side effects of the vaccines on children and they are regarded as a low priority compared with high-risk groups such as the elderly or frontline medical workers.
Younger people are thought generally to suffer from milder symptoms if infected with Covid-19.
It is not clear when Chinese children are likely to start receiving jabs and the country is currently trying to meet a target of vaccinating 560 million people by the end of the month, with a particular focus on high-risk groups.
In the southern province of Guangdong, a new outbreak caused by the delta variant, which was first identified in India , has seen some cities including Guangzhou entering partial lockdown.
Sinovac’s product is one of more than 20 vaccines developed in China using a variety of techniques. These range from vaccines such as Sinovac’s made using the old school technique of using a dead, or inactivated, virus to trigger an immune response to those that use viral proteins or mRNA technology.
An easy-to-use vaccine that can be sprayed in the mouth has recently applied for emergency use, according to state media reports.
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