WHO says working with China on requirements for COVID vaccine approval

FILE PHOTO: A booth displaying a coronavirus vaccine candidate from Sinovac Biotech Ltd is seen at the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), following the COVID-19 outbreak, in Beijing, China September 5, 2020. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

The World Health Organization is working with China on requirements for international approval of any Chinese COVID-19 vaccine, a senior official said on Monday.

"WHO's office in China and WHO headquarters has been working with the regulatory authorities in China," assistant director-general Mariangela Simao told a briefing in Geneva. "We are in direct contact, we have been sharing information and the requirements for international approval of vaccines."

The chief executive of Sinovac Biotech Ltd said on Sunday about 90% of the Chinese firm's employees and their families have taken an experimental vaccine it has developed under the country's emergency use program.

FILE PHOTO: A sign for Sinovac Biotech Ltd is seen at the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), following the COVID-19 outbreak, in Beijing, China September 5, 2020. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

The extent of inoculations under the emergency program, which China launched in July but has released few details about, points to how actively it is using experimental vaccines in the hopes of protecting essential workers against a potential COVID-19 resurgence, even as trials are still under way.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Emma Farge; Editing by Alex Richardson)