Zhejiang follows rules in vaccine use

BEIJING: After some cities in eastern China, where many export-driven businesses are located, showed growing demand for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccination, China’s top regulators on drug development and epidemic prevention refuted Western media reports that China has expanded its vaccination program and has rolled out experimental vaccines to the general public, as they are still only for emergency use.

Emergency injection of the coronavirus vaccine, which is necessary to protect personnel who are exposed to a higher risk of contracting the virus, has been undertaken in line with relevant laws and regulations in China with the support of the World Health Organization,

Zheng Zhongwei, an official from the National Health Commission in charge of technology development, told a press conference.

The emergency use of vaccine has followed a rigorous scientific verification process and received approval by authorities, and so far, all those who have taken the vaccination under the emergency use plan have shown no severe adverse reactions, Zheng said.

The remarks came after some Western media reports mistook people being given access to the vaccine for emergency use as a signal that China had expanded the scope of those able to receive the experimental vaccines.

The confusion came after cities in East China’s Zhejiang Province, including Jiaxing and Shaoxing, announced that local residents could get access to Covid-19 vaccine. The foreign media reports alleged that China was rolling out a mass vaccination campaign before the rigorous testing of vaccine candidates has concluded.

“We made a very careful expert demonstration in order to advance the emergency use of the coronavirus vaccines, which was led by a group of experts in the law, ethics and in clinical trials,” Zheng said, noting that the selection of vaccines approved for emergency use is in line with regulations, and they have gone through tests and shown positive results.

Zhejiang was the first province in China to announce that it will make arrangements for Covid-19 vaccinations for the public.