vaccine Photo:VCG

 

China's former finance minister Lou Jiwei said on Friday that he has received the Chinese-developed COVID-19 vaccines twice, and there is 99 percent chance that he has the required antibodies.

Lou called on all countries to cooperate in research and development (R&D) of COVID-19 vaccines, during the Caixin Summit held on Friday.

The Phase-III clinical trials of the Chinese-developed COVID-19 vaccines are progressing very well, he added.

There are currently four COVID-19 vaccine candidates in Phase-III clinical trials in China. Their announced vaccination procedures are similar: They are all administered in two doses with an interval of 14 to 28 days.

It is hard to win the vaccine R&D battle, and very difficult to distribute and inoculate the vaccine in a comprehensive manner, said Lou.

He estimated the global economy will recover back to normal after 2022.

Chinese pharmaceutical firms Sinopharm, Sinovac Biotech and CanSino Biologics have been carrying out Phase-III clinical trials outside the country.

Sinopharm's vaccine trials are currently progressing smoothly in the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Peru, Argentina and other countries, and have entered the "final sprint" stage. With more than 50,000 volunteers vaccinated, the sample population has covered 125 nationalities. 

US drug maker Pfizer said earlier this week that its mRNA vaccine, which relies on a snippet of the virus' genome, succeeded in the final stage of clinical trials since it is more than 90 percent effective.

According to Johns Hopkins University, global COVID-19 infections have reached 52,753,626, with 1,293,434 deaths as of 4 pm Friday. The US, India and Brazil are the top three countries with the highest number of infections.