Phase 3 trials of a Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine found it was 79 percent effective, the Chinese pharma giant said Wednesday, lower than rival jabs developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna but a potential breakthrough in the battle to stem the pandemic in Asia.
China has been racing against the West to develop its own COVID-19 vaccines, with 5 already in large-scale Phase 3 clinical trials.
But Wednesday’s announcement was the first data released regarding the efficacy of a Chinese vaccine candidate.
“The protective effect of the (Sinopharm CNBG Beijing) vaccine against COVID-19 is 79.34 percent,” said the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, a Sinopharm subsidiary.
Sinopharm has applied to China’s drug regulator for approval of the inactivated coronavirus vaccine, the statement said, a type of inoculation using particles of the pathogen.
But China has struggled to gain international trust for its vaccine candidates, hindered by a lack of transparency on test results.
It has also been slow to complete Phase 3 trials, which had to be conducted abroad due to China’s success at curbing the spread of COVID-19 within its own borders.
‘No adverse reaction’
Chinese officials have repeatedly assured the public of the vaccines’ safety, claiming that there have been no serious adverse reactions.
More than 1 million people have already been vaccinated with unapproved vaccines in China under its emergency use program, including frontline health workers, state-owned enterprise employees, and workers planning to travel abroad.
The United Arab Emirates approved a Sinopharm vaccine earlier this month, becoming the first foreign country to approve a China-developed COVID-19 vaccine. It said the vaccine was 86 percent effective, according to interim results of a Phase 3 trial.
Beijing has pledged to share the vaccine at a fair cost — a potential boost for poorer Asian countries who are otherwise reliant on the limited distribution offered by the COVAX scheme.
“China has made the firm commitment that after China’s new coronavirus vaccines are completed and put into use, they will serve as a global public product and be supplied to the world at a fair and reasonable price,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Friday.
“We will also give priority to developing countries for vaccines. This will be made through a variety of ways, including through donations and aid.”
COVID updates
The Philippines logged on Wednesday 1,014 new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), bringing the total to 472,532, as seven laboratories failed to submit their data on time, the Department of Health reported.
The DOH also reported that there are 23,793 active cases, which is 5 percent of the total cases. Of the active cases, 79.7 percent are mild cases; 11 percent are asymptomatic; 5.7 percent are critical; 3.1 percent are severe; and 0.49 percent are moderate.
Top provinces and cities with new cases are Quezon City, 67; Benguet, 57; Makati, 48; Bulacan, 44; and Laguna, 40.
There are also 518 persons who recovered recently in the government’s “mass recovery adjustment”, bringing the total recoveries to 439,509, which is 93 percent of the total.
The DOH also reported 68 new fatalities, bringing the death toll to 9,230, which is 1.95 percent of the total.
Cases surge
Hospitals are now bracing for the possible surge of COVID-19 infections after the Christmas and New Year holidays, an official said Wednesday.
The health and budget departments gave funds, which made it possible for “most” of public hospitals, especially in Metro Manila, to add 50 to 80 beds for patients with critical and severe symptoms of COVID-19, said Health Undersecretary Dr. Leopoldo Vega.
Authorities also built several field hospitals for treating critical and severe COVID-19 cases, including those that are expected to be operational by January, said Vega, who is also the country’s “treatment czar.”
Vega urged the public to refrain from celebrating the New Year with firecrackers that may cause injuries, which might “overstrain” emergency hospitals. Injured individuals might also come in contact with COVID-19 patients in the hospitals, he said.
26 frontliners infected
Another 26 Filipino frontliners in the United Kingdom were infected by COVID-19, the Department of Labor and Employment reported Wednesday.
The Philippine Overseas Labor Office in London said the 26 new cases were recorded among nurses and health care workers in the last two days, bringing the total of stricken nurses to 776.
The fresh cases of infection is part of the spiked COVID cases in the UK at 53,135 with 414 deaths from the previous day’s 41,385 and 357 casualties, Labor Attaché Amy Reyes said.
Reyes said the 25 infected Filipino nurses and a health care worker are now in isolation, and are being given assistance. She added that nine of those infected were deployed in the UK only this year while the rest had been working in Britain since 2019.
But she did not say whether the infection was caused by the new strain of the virus, adding only that UK’s National Health Services hospitals are “under extreme pressure due to the surge of the cases.”
In Canada, for instance, the POLO in Vancouver reported that the UK COVID-9 variant “is now in four parts of Canada, including British Columbia and Alberta.”
BuCor cases
Close to 600 people were infected with COVID-19 inside the facilities managed by the Bureau of Corrections, the Department of Justice said Wednesday.
Data submitted by the Bureau of Corrections to Justice Undersecretary Emmeline Aglipay-Villar said that as of December 15, they recorded 598 confirmed COVID-19 cases, while 27 of them died.
According to Villar, 441 COVID patients had recovered, while only 130 remained active cases.
The BuCor said, the “active cases are all mild and asymptomatic.”
The report submitted to DOJ did not specify if the figures covered both the persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) and BuCor personnel infected with the virus.
However, in previous data released by BuCor, it mentioned that COVID-19 cases involved both the PDLs and BuCor employees.
The BuCor had implemented a lockdown, prohibiting visitations to the PDLs as a precaution against the virus penetrating its walls.
‘Why too long?’
Sen. Imee Marcos asked Wednesday what’s taking too long for the Philippines to start the vaccination of Filipinos, while infections and deaths were rising.
She said other countries were already vaccinating their citizens.
“It’s such an envy. Even Indonesia and South Africa are already doing their vaccination,” she said.
But in the Philippines, she said “we are still negotiating with the different pharma companies, “and allegedly overpriced.”
Reacting to reports that some members of the Presidential Guards battalion had been injected with smuggled or ‘unauthorized’ vaccines, Marcos asked, “why the need to smuggle?”
“In the first place, what’s taking the DOH so long?” she also asked.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan said it’s sad that despite the presence of vaccine czar Charlie Galvez who’s in charge of the vaccine rollout, everyone had been acting on his own.
“They have conflicting explanations on the legality of the vaccines,” he said. With Rey E. Requejo and Macon Ramos-Araneta