When can the elderly and children receive the new coronavirus vaccine? Authoritative answer!

At present, my country's COVID-19 vaccination work is being carried out in an orderly manner. Four vaccines have been conditionally approved for marketing in my country. As of the end of February, my country has administered more than 52 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, provided vaccine assistance to 69 countries and two international organizations, and exported vaccines to 28 countries.

So, when will my country's COVID-19 vaccine production capacity catch up with demand? In addition to people aged 18 to 59, when will children, teenagers and the elderly be able to get vaccinated? Can the speed of COVID-19 vaccination keep up with the speed of virus mutation?

The reporter interviewed Yu Qingming, a member of the National People's Congress and chairman of Sinopharm Group Sinopharm Holdings.

Sinopharm's third COVID-19 vaccine is about to start clinical trials

There is no significant decrease in antibodies after one year of vaccination with Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine

Shortly before the start of the 2021 National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, China National Biotec Group, was approved for marketing. This is the second COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinopharm Group and approved for conditional marketing.

Yu Qingming revealed that in addition to this, Sinopharm Group's third new crown vaccine-recombinant protein vaccine has also made significant progress and is about to start clinical trials.

△ Yu Qingming, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Sinopharm Group Sinopharm Holdings

"In the face of the huge demand for global anti-epidemic work, a single vaccine is far from enough. Therefore, in the early stage of research and development in 2020, Sinopharm Group China Biologic developed two inactivated vaccines, adopting the same technical route and independently developing them in parallel. The purpose is to ensure the successful development of the vaccine, achieve 'double insurance', and ensure sufficient production capacity." Yu Qingming said.

Statistics show that as of the end of February 2021, my country has administered more than 52 million doses of vaccines, but the proportion of people vaccinated is still low. Many people wonder how long the immune effect of the new crown vaccine will last? Do they need to be vaccinated every year like the flu vaccine?

Yu Qingming introduced that in March 2020, the party and government leaders of Sinopharm Group's internal enterprises "tested the drug on themselves". After one year of continuous tracking and monitoring of antibodies, they are still maintained at a high level, with no significant decline.

At the same time, the international clinical trials of Sinopharm Group China Biological's new crown vaccine are continuing in seven countries on three continents, with 63,000 people enrolled and vaccinated, covering people from 125 countries, and progress in all aspects is leading the world.

The new coronavirus vaccine is effective against the current mutant strains

Production capacity can reach more than 1 billion doses in 2021

At present, all overseas clinical trial sites have completed the full two-shot immunization. However, mutated strains of the new coronavirus have appeared in the UK, South Africa and other places. How effective are the current new coronavirus vaccines? Can they keep up with the speed of virus mutation?

In response, Yu Qingming said that the test results showed that the COVID-19 vaccine is still effective against the current mutant strains. "The large-scale overseas clinical trial data approved by various governments show that the protective efficacy of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine has reached 86%, the comprehensive antibody conversion rate has exceeded 99%, the effectiveness of preventing moderate cases is 100%, and the effectiveness of preventing severe cases is 100%. From the overall situation at present, the recent cross-neutralization test results show that our Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine has also shown a broad spectrum of protective efficacy against 10 new coronavirus variants such as South Africa and the United Kingdom, and can effectively prevent infections caused by common strains." Yu Qingming said.

Yu Qingming introduced that, as of now, Sinopharm Group has supplied nearly 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to China and abroad, more than 60 million doses have been administered, and more than 80 countries and international organizations have expressed clear demands for the use of Sinopharm Group's COVID-19 vaccines. However, the current production capacity is far from meeting the demand.

Yu Qingming revealed that on the basis of the already built P3 high-level biological safety production workshops of Beijing Institute of Biological Products and Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, China National Biotec Group will continue to use the six major biological product research institutes in Changchun, Shanghai, Lanzhou and Chengdu to expand production capacity and subpackaging capacity. "The production capacity can reach more than 1 billion doses in 2021, and the annual production capacity is expected to reach 3 billion doses in the future, making it the world's largest new crown vaccine manufacturer."

Clinical trial data for people aged 3 to 17 years old show that the vaccine is safe and effective

Currently, the COVID-19 vaccine is available to healthy adults aged 18 to 59. On the eve of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that it had vaccinated some elderly people aged 60 and above who had a need for vaccination and were in good physical condition. In the next step, Beijing will carry out comprehensive vaccination for the elderly in a timely manner according to the national opinions.

Vaccination for the elderly has been included in the plan. When will children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 be fully vaccinated? Yu Qingming said, "The oldest recipient is nearly 100 years old. The data from the Phase III clinical trial of people aged 3 to 17 show that the vaccine is safe and effective. It can only be used for people aged 3 to 17 after approval by the relevant government authorities. It is expected to be used for the majority of minors as soon as possible."

More information:

When can we take off our masks? Zhang Boli gave a time

On March 8, Zhang Boli, deputy to the National People's Congress, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and president of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said in an interview with reporters that the current domestic epidemic situation is relatively stable, and we may be able to take off our masks in the early spring of next year.

Question: The domestic epidemic situation is under stable control. When can we stop wearing masks?

Zhang Boli: The domestic epidemic is relatively stable now, but the epidemic abroad is still spreading, so we cannot take it lightly. The task of preventing imported cases and domestic rebound is still very heavy. We still have to stick to some of our good habits in the past, including wearing masks. For example, there are very few cases of influenza this year, colds and upper respiratory tract infections are also very rare, which is related to everyone's insistence on wearing masks. I expect that at least by the beginning of next spring, we should be able to take off our masks.

Question: Some people take Chinese medicine because they are afraid of getting COVID-19. Is it necessary?

Zhang Boli: Chinese medicine regulates the body's condition, making the body more resistant to disease. It mainly regulates the body's function. If your body is in good condition, there is no need to take Chinese medicine.

Question: Some people say that Chinese patients who had contracted COVID-19 and have now recovered have milder sequelae than patients abroad. Is this true?

Zhang Boli: This is indeed true. The incidence and severity of long-term symptoms among patients in our country are milder than those in foreign countries, but the specific reasons are unclear and we are also studying it.

Source: China National Radio, People's Daily Online, CCTV News