Chinese workers to be vaccinated before returning overseas

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services) 

The employees of state owned enterprises (SOEs) in China, preparing to leave for abroad, are being offered to administer two choices of homegrown inactivated vaccine shots for urgent use, with both shots having demonstrated safety in human trials.

The experts have speculated that workers traveling to high-risk areas such as the US, Brazil and India will be given priority for vaccination, Global Times, the English version of mass circulated People’s daily, reported on June 11.

The vaccination offer serves not only to protect Chinese overseas from infection but also to help provide more valuable data to help detect antibody levels and calculate vaccine protection rates for a global reference to the vaccine's efficacy, analysts suggested. 

The two vaccines for urgent use are developed by the Beijing Biological Products Institute and Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, affiliated to the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm). 

Both are inactivated vaccines that have shown safe results with no distinct adverse reaction during the first two phases of clinical trials, according to a written notice of the vaccine offer relayed to the SOEs obtained by the Global Times.

"According to the feedback given by Sinopharm, the two vaccines have been verified to be safe through clinical trials and are now going to the third phase of clinical trial. All procedures are undergoing with relevant national laws and regulations," it was revealed. 

Sinopharm had said on May 29 that clinical data from more than 2,000 cases of the two inactivated vaccines showed that the safety and immunoreactions of the vaccine have been fully verified, with no obvious adverse reactions. 

The resumption of production of overseas projects and the health of overseas workers are still under serious threat. 

For better prevention and quicker recovery of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects, Sinopharm has given priority to supporting workers intending to go overseas to vaccinate for urgent needs, the notice said. 

An employee in charge of publicity at a Chinese railway construction company confirmed the notice with the Global Times on June 11 The company has construction projects along the BRI in Asian, African, Oceanic and American countries such as Nepal, Fiji and Ecuador. 

"There is such a notice, but it will take time before the vaccines could be distributed to our company. Also it has not been officially published in our department, so we have yet not known any details," the employee said. 

Another SOE dedicated to BRI infrastructure construction projects also confirmed this proposal to the Global Times, telling the vaccination offer was their cooperative plan with Sinopharm while the specific arrangement was still confidential. 

Vaccination priority will be given to SOE workers carrying out overseas business regularly or for a longer time. Those who have temporary travel plans can also be provided depending on their demand, according to the notice.

"The vaccination is completely voluntary. Informed consent must be signed prior to vaccination and the second dose should be administered within 14-28 days after the completion of the first dose," the notice explained. 

A COVID-19 vaccine could be ready for emergency use by September, according to Gao Fu, Director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. 

China still faced the risk of a second round of the COVID-19 epidemic, a recent report, led by Gao, suggested. A safe and effective vaccine is expected to be the most powerful tool to contain the disease and stop local transmission by forming a population immunity barrier.