What’s new: China’s current Covid-19 vaccines can tackle coronavirus variants that emerged in India, a Chinese disease control expert said Thursday.
Shao Yiming, a researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), said at a press conference that China’s vaccines have a certain protective effect against Indian variants based on preliminary research results, though he didn’t mention any specific vaccines or variants.
“In the process of continuous mutation of the coronavirus, the variations will increase,” Shao said. “Once there is a variant that the current vaccines cannot cope with, China’s inactivated vaccines can quickly find a way to deal with it.”
What’s more: Wu Zunyou, chief infectious diseases expert at the China CDC, said at the same press conference that some 3,000 variants of the novel coronavirus have been detected in India.
Among the variants, B.1.617, a double mutant variant of the coronavirus, has spread to more than 40 countries since it emerged in India in October, according to the World Health Organization.
Earlier this month, authorities in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing also discovered that three inbound flight passengers were infected with the B.1.617 variant.
Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)
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