The first officially approved Chinese vaccine against the coronavirus is effective against new variants of the virus, one of its creators said on Tuesday in statements to China’s state TV.
“The current mutation of the Covid-19 virus did not make the vaccine ineffective,” said Yang Xiaoming, president of the public laboratory China National Biotec Group (CNBG), which developed the vaccine with its subsidiary Sinopharm.
Beijing announced last week that it had discovered the new British-origin variant in a student returning from the UK. On December 24, China had already ordered the suspension of its flights with this country.
Today the Chinese authorities were trying to speed up the vaccination of the population on the eve of trips and family gatherings for the Chinese New Year, which this year falls on February 12, reported the Chinese news agency Xinhua.
This festival usually leads to the largest migration in the world, when hundreds of millions of workers leave the big cities to return to their homes.
