‘CHINESE VACCINES EFFECTIVE AGAINST VARIANT FIRST FOUND IN INDIA’

China’s Covid-19 vaccines are effective against the coronavirus variant first detected in India, a leading Chinese disease control expert said on Thursday.

Based on preliminary studies, the vaccines in use in China can provide protection against infection “to a certain extent”, Shao Yiming, an expert with the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in Beijing on Thursday. Shao did not share specific details of which vaccines are effective.

Chinese experts had said last week that at least 18 cases of the Covid-19 variant first detected in India had been detected in China.

China has been paying close attention to the variant of the coronavirus first detected in India, and is conducting research and accumulating data on it, Shao said.

The virus will continue mutating, therefore more changes will appear, Shao, was quoted as saying by the news agency Xinhua.