China gives permission to use unapproved Covid-19 vaccine for emergency

A Chinese health official announced on Sunday that the country has given permission to use the domestically developed unapproved coronavirus vaccine for emergency, as per media reports.

The vaccine will be given to people who are at high risk of getting infected in a limited period.

Zheng Zhongwei, head of China's coronavirus vaccine development task force, said in a statement as quoted in the India Today report: “We've drawn up a series of plan packages, including medical consent forms, side-effects monitoring plans, rescuing plans, compensation plans, to make sure that the emergency use is well regulated and monitored.”

China had officially launched the usage of vaccines on July 22 even when they were on their trial period. The participants who had received the vaccine reported no fever. Only a few of them had demonstrated adverse reactions to the vaccine.

China has so far reported over 84,000 cases of the novel coronavirus. While more than 79,000 have recuperated, around 4600 died of the virus.

Last week, Beijing removed the requirement to sport a mask while venturing out in public, further relaxing its containment measures, Indian Express reported.