- Experiment on 1 million Sinos
- 9 million India cases
Nearly a million people have taken an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Chinese company Sinopharm, the firm said, although it has not yet provided any clear clinical evidence of efficacy.
China has been giving experimental COVID-19 vaccines to people including state employees, international students, and essential workers heading abroad since July.
Sinopharm’s chairman told the media this week that nearly a million people have now received their vaccine for emergency use, though he did not provide a specific figure.
“We have not received a single report of severe adverse reaction, and only a few had some mild symptoms,” Liu Jingzhen said in an interview re-published by the state-owned firm on Wednesday.
Sinopharm is testing two vaccines in late-stage trials in countries including the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Peru, and Argentina
9 million infections in India
India’s coronavirus caseload passed nine million on Friday, as hospitals in the capital New Delhi came under increasing pressure and graveyards began to fill up.
The world’s second-worst-hit country has now also registered more than 132,000 deaths from the disease, according to the latest official figures, which are widely seen as understating the true scale of infection.
India has seen a drop in daily cases over the past month but it is still registering about 45,000 new infections on average every day.
New Delhi, facing the dual scourge of winter pollution and coronavirus, has seen infections soar past half a million with a record rise in daily cases.
US ramps up curbs
Americans were on Friday facing a growing raft of coronavirus restrictions, even as pharma giant Pfizer and partner BioNTech prepared to file an emergency request to roll out their vaccine.
California announced a night-time curfew and authorities urged people everywhere not to travel for Thanksgiving as the country was hit by a spike of more than 2,200 deaths – the worst daily toll since May.
An emergency use authorization request for the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was expected to be filed with the US Food and Drug Administration on Friday, the government and BioNTech’s co-founder said.
The two candidates have taken the lead in the global chase for a solution after large-scale trial data this month showed their jabs were around 95 percent effective.