Vaccines said key to reopen intl borders

Quick rollout needs to continue to reach 70% inoculation rate for herd immunity

Mass vaccination is the only way for China to build herd immunity against the novel coronavirus and fully reopen to the world, a renowned health expert said.

The National Health Commission said that China had administered nearly 140 million doses as of Sunday, up by about 3.3 million from Saturday. The number of fully vaccinated people in China is still far from the estimated threshold for herd immunity of at least 70 percent.

By comparison, some major economies have outpaced the rest of the world in vaccinating their population, said Zhang Wenhong, head of the infectious disease center at Fudan University’s Huashan Hospital in Shanghai.

He said Israel is very close to establishing herd immunity, and the United Kingdom is moving fast and has inoculated nearly all people above 40 years old. For the United States, with a total population of over 300 million and a daily rollout of 4 million shots, the goal of herd immunity is also on the horizon, he added.

“If China fails to successfully immunize its population and other countries begin to fully reopen their borders, the country will have to confront a serious barrier in resuming communication with the rest of the world,” Zhang said during an interview with China Central Television that aired on Saturday.

China is now capable of suppressing local outbreaks and infection clusters with a series of nonpharmaceutical measures, such as swift testing and quarantine, and targeted lockdown policies.

Zhang said such a strategy is effective in clearing all domestic cases, but it cannot last for the long run. The speedy development and approval of vaccines has offered another safe and effective avenue for defeating the virus, he added.

Some regions that experienced local outbreaks after COVID-19 vaccines were first made available in July are now leading the race in terms of vaccination rates.

Beijing’s Daxing district, which reported more than 30 local infections earlier this year, has become the country’s first to immunize 80 percent of its population. Local authorities in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, a city that recorded over 860 cases from January to February, said it aims to vaccinate 50 percent of residents by the end of June.

The local government of Ruili, a city in Yunnan province bordering Myanmar, also said it will inoculate all people eligible for vaccines by Tuesday. The city has reported dozens of locally-transmitted COVID-19 cases since March 30.

Beijing also announced on Friday that more than 10 million people in the city had received COVID-19 vaccinations by Friday afternoon, and it plans to vaccinate all local residents aged 18 and older by the end of May, according to the Beijing Daily newspaper.

Zhang said rolling out such fast vaccination campaign is a significant addition to China’s existing viruscontrol tools.

Quality certificate

China has granted conditional approval for four domestically made vaccines and approved one vaccine for emergency use.

One of the approved vaccines that is produced by the State-owned Sinopharm’s Beijing Institute of Biological Products obtained a Good Manufacturing Practice certificate from Hungarian authorities on Thursday, Sinopharm said on Saturday. The certificate attests to consistent quality of products manufactured by the company.

Sinopharm said the new certificate is the first of its kind to be issued to a vaccine developed by China and marks a step forward for homegrown COVID-19 vaccines to become a global public good.

The National Health Commission also released the first version of a guideline for the use of COVID19 vaccines on March 29 to help overcome vaccine hesitancy and address common concerns among the public.

The document says all people aged 18 or older are cleared for vaccination. It also specifies five categories of contraindications to COVID-19 vaccines: allergic reaction to any vaccine component; severe reaction to other vaccines; uncontrolled epilepsy or other neurological disorder; fever, acute disease or acute chronic disease; pregnancy.

China is now carrying out millions of COVID-19 vaccinations each day, mostly in a bid to achieve ring immunity, limiting the risk of any possible spread of the virus by administering the vaccine to people who are most likely to be infected — such as those working in the cold chain, healthcare, public transport and service sectors. More than 136 million doses have already been administered, according to the National Health Commission.

Yet that figure is still a far cry from the level necessary to prevent the further spread of the virus, and achieving the herd immunity target of vaccinating more than 60 percent of the population by the end of the year.

It also falls behind those in some other countries such as Israel and the United Kingdom, which already have more than half of their population vaccinated for COVID-19.

The latest outbreak of COVID-19 cases in Ruili, Yunnan province, once again points to the urgency of building herd immunity, or at least herd resistance, the level of immunity in the population that reduces infection rates, through a massive vaccination drive.

This is especially important given that the rest of the world is slowly reopening after more than a year of lockdowns due to the pandemic, and as vaccination rates rise there will be more cross-border travel.

Ruili, which borders Myanmar, reported 15 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and five new asymptomatic cases on Sunday, all detected during a citywide nucleic acid testing. In total, it now has 51 confirmed cases, and 56 asymptomatic cases, according to the provincial health commission on Monday.

Though China has basically eradicated local COVID-19 transmissions, the fact that it is the second time in seven months that the border city has been forced to lock down in response to a fresh outbreak suggests the successful methods in the fight against the pandemic — early detection, early testing, early quarantine and early treatment — could be tested in the face of infections imported from outside the country. Of the new patients reported in Ruili, many were identified as Myanmar citizens.

Thus if the country plans to reopen its borders while still keeping its economic activities and social life on the normal track, it must build a firewall against the virus as soon as possible by vaccinating its general population.

Ruili is already carrying out an aggressive campaign to vaccinate all its 300,000 residents within five days, which began on Friday.

Vaccines have proved safe and effective against COVID-19 infections. With four vaccines already approved for general use and a daily output of more than 5 million doses, China is fully capable of achieving herd immunity. How soon that day will arrive depends on how quickly vaccine doses can be distributed and how willing each one of us is to have a jab.