Chinese Covid-19 Vaccines Not As Effective Against Delta Variant: China Disease Control Researcher

Antibodies generated by the two Chinese Covid-19 vaccines are comparatively less effective against the Delta variant as compared to the other strains. However, the shots do offer some protection as mentioned by Chinese disease control researcher Feng Zijan in an interview aired by the China Central Television.

Zijan mentioned that the aforementioned vaccines, namely that of Sinovac and Sinopharm, comprise of killed coronavirus that cannot replicate in the human cells. These vaccines have been widely used in nations like Bahrain, UAE, Seychelles, Chile and others.

According to reports from earlier this week, these countries have been witnessing another surge of new infections and Bahrain even approved a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for individuals already immunized with the Chinese shots.

As per a report by Reuters, around 170 Covid-19 positive cases were recorded in three cities in the Guangdong province from 21 May to 21 June. The Delta variant is said to have caused the infections in this area but the exact number of individuals who contracted the same hasn’t been revealed yet.

“In the Guangdong outbreak, none of those vaccinated infections became severe cases, and none of the severe cases were vaccinated,” Feng’s statement was quoted in the report.