‘Sinopharm vaccine from China’
THE Government of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has donated 50,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to the Solomon Islands.
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare announced this in his nationwide address.
“We expect the 50,000 doses to arrive in the country on 11 April 2021,” Sogavare said.
He further explained that the Technical working group together with the National Covid-19 Coordinating Committee will shortly be looking into the roll-out plan for the Sinopharm vaccine.
Sogavare assured the nation that more than 50 countries have received and are using Sinopharm Vaccines under their own ‘Emergency Use Authorisations’ either through donations or direct procurement.
“We are closely monitoring the approval process by the World Health Organization of the Sinopharm vaccine to guide our roll-out planning,” he said.
Meanwhile, it was reported that World Health Organization (WHO) vaccine experts have said an interim analysis of clinical trial data from two Chinese COVID-19 vaccines “demonstrated safety and good efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 disease.”
These two Chinese vaccines (Sinovac and Sinoharm) are likely to be included in the emergency use list of the WHO by the end of April as more data is needed for the organization to approve the two jabs.
It was understood that WHO has so far granted Emergency Use Listing (EUL) to COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford University-AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson.
By ANDREW FANASIA
Newsroom Honiara
