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Join on Telegram Rabat – Scientists in China have expressed confidence that the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine is effective against the new strain that originated in the UK. According to Chinese outlet China Daily, the country is paying particular attention to the new mutation.
The country’s Vice-Minister of the National Health Commission Zeng Yixin said that local scientists are “paying close attention” to the new strain that entered China around the new year.
The Wall Street Journal reported on December 31 that the UK’s particular strain had entered China after a 23-year old Chinese national returned from Britain.
Zeng spoke to the press at the State Council Information Office on Saturday to announce the early findings of China’s medical community.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention had initially warned that “the first imported (U.K.) variant in China poses a great potential threat to the prevention and control of COVID-19 in China.”
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The 23-year old woman who was detected to have the new strain had tested negative just two weeks prior. On arrival in China, however, she was found to have the mutated virus.
Sequencing of her test had revealed that the variation differed from that found originally in Wuhan where the virus originated. Although the woman’s symptoms were mild, Chinese scientists were mobilized.
One week later, scientists of Guangdong province’s Sun Yat-sen University and the Institute of Laboratory Animal Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences were hard at work to test the Chinese vaccine against the new UK strain.
Vice-Minister of the National Health Commission Zeng Yixin told the Chinese press on Saturday that he was confident the Chinese vaccine is effective against the new UK strain.
“This result has fortified our confidence that our vaccine can neutralize the mutated variant,” Zeng told China Daily. “At least for now, we know current mutations of SARS-CoV-2 will not affect the potency of vaccines, this point is very certain.”
