Sinovac FINAL

Inactivated COVID-19 vaccines made by Sinovac are effective and safe, said Yin Weidong, CEO of Chinese vaccine producer Sinovac Biotech, at a press conference of the State Council on Wednesday. 

Yin's comments came after Indonesia's President Joko Widodo received the first dose of Sinovac Biotech's coronavirus vaccine, named CoronaVac, on Wednesday, becoming the first person in the country to be vaccinated. 

The remarks also came in response to some foreign media's questioning of the efficacy and safety of the vaccine after Sinovac released data on Tuesday that showed the vaccine had an overall efficacy of 50.4 percent in Brazil's final-stage trials. 

Zhao Lijian, spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also made comments on the efficacy of Sinovac's vaccine at a regular press conference on Wednesday. 

China always attaches great importance to the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, and Chinese vaccine developers are pushing ahead with the research and development of the vaccines in strict accordance with scientific rules and requirements and actively carry out international cooperation in the field, he said. 

Sinovac has a production capacity of 500 million doses per year and passed quality reviews in five countries including Brazil and Turkey, Yin said at the State Council press conference. 

The company has already delivered more than seven million vaccine doses in the Chinese mainland and applied for registration documents in Hong Kong to supply a total of one million doses there. The pharmaceutical company will deliver those vaccines on time, said Yin. 

China has administered over 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses so far, and inoculation continues to move forward smoothly, said Wang Bin, an official from the China Health Commission, at the State Council press conference. 

The country will expand its vaccination program to more groups, including people older than 60, with more complete clinical trial data, changes in epidemic control policy, and increase in vaccine supplies, he said. 

Sinovac has already sent some vaccines overseas. About 15 million doses of semi-finished COVID-19 vaccines were sent to Indonesia on Tuesday, following the first two batches totalling 3 million doses. 

Indonesia has distributed a total of 1.2 million doses of vaccines to 34 provinces as part of its mass vaccination efforts. The country launched its national immunization campaign on Wednesday.

Myanmar has also held frequent talks with China on acquiring COVID-19 vaccines from the China National Pharmaceutical Group and Sinovac.