First batch of foreign Covid-19 vaccine arrives in China

Beijing [China], December 23: Earlier, on December 22, BioNTech said that a batch of 11,500 Covid-19 vaccines had arrived in China, ready to be administered to German citizens in the country and marked the first time foreign vaccines were allowed to be injected in China.
Reuters quoted information from BioNTech that the shipment contained both the vaccine against the first-generation Covid-19 virus strain and the version to deal with minor variants of Omicron , BA.4/BA.5.
Until recently, China persisted in injecting its own vaccines for its own people.
For the first time, China allows foreign vaccines
"The shipment of the vaccine to mainland China marks an important milestone in our partnership with Shanghai-based Fosun Pharma," said Sean Marett, head of business operations . and trade of the German company.
BioNTech said it is working with Fosun Pharma to distribute vaccines to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang and Chengdu.
The above vaccines, including 11,500 doses, are only enough to give one shot to more than half of German citizens (about 20,000 people) in China and take place in the context of Beijing loosening its "zero Covid" policy .
According to Reuters, a French Health Ministry official has yet to decide what is the best way to vaccinate French people in China.
Which variant is causing the outbreak in China?
China on December 20 began to change the way it calculates the number of deaths from Covid-19 and only counts those who die from pneumonia or respiratory failure.
China's National Health Commission (NHC) said that as of December 23, the country had not recorded a Covid-19 death within 24 hours, and the number of new cases increased by 3,761. The number of severe cases increased to 42 from 45 the day before.
Also on December 23, Xinhua News Agency quoted expert Xu Wenbo, director of the National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as saying two sub- variants of BA. 5 of Omicron is raging in China.
According to Chinese authorities, BA.5.2 is mainly concentrated in Guangzhou and BF.7 in Beijing. Variations in other regions are unknown.
The Paper newspaper in Shanghai quoted Zhang Wenhong, director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases, predicting that China will reach the peak of the epidemic within a week.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization WHO) on December 2 estimated that about 90% of the world's population is now equipped with some degree of defense against Covid-19, but that the variant that causes the disease is still possible. new concern and now Omicron "spawned" 500 sub-variants .
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper