A steady stream of China's new crown vaccine rushes to aid countries and regions with vaccine shortages

　　◎Reporter Zhang Jiaxing

　　2% and 50%.

　　This contrasting number comes from the World Health Organization.

The WHO recently issued a document urgently: The crisis of vaccine inequality is now!

　　To alleviate inequality and promote fair distribution, China fulfills its promise to help regions with vaccine shortages——

　　On September 3, about 700,000 doses of China's new crown vaccine departed from Beijing Kexing to Venezuela.

　　"Vaccines destined for Venezuela have now completed the first half of the transportation, and the second half has not yet taken off from Panama to Venezuela. It is expected to land in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, at 4:45 a.m. Beijing time on September 7." On September 5, The relevant person in charge of Kexing Holding Biotechnology Co., Ltd. replied to the reporter of Science and Technology Daily that the recently delivered new crown vaccine is already on the way to aid.

　　All along, China's new crown vaccine companies have continued to increase their production capacity to support the fight against the epidemic in many developing countries.

On August 30 and August 10, tens of millions of doses of vaccine have been delivered to Algeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries with a shortage of vaccines through the "New Coronary Pneumonia Vaccine Implementation Plan" (COVAX).

　　At the regular press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on September 2, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin introduced: In the near future, nearly 30 million doses of vaccines will be shipped to developing countries such as Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Kyrgyzstan, Venezuela, etc.

This is another practical action taken by China to fulfill its global public product promise of vaccines, promote the fair distribution of vaccines, and help the global fight against the epidemic.

　　New crown vaccine distribution "balance" is severely tilted

　　The article on the WHO official website describes the polarization of the new crown vaccine in the global promotion.

The article said: The speed of vaccine popularization has appeared surprisingly different.

In most low-income countries, less than 2% of adults have received full vaccination, while in high-income countries, this proportion is almost 50%.

　　The article specifically pointed out that countries that lack vaccines simply cannot get enough vaccines.

　　Taking Venezuela as an example, government officials in that country have stated on multiple occasions that the country has been working hard to obtain the new crown vaccine, but there is great resistance.

For example, the President of Venezuela once proposed to use oil to pay for the new crown vaccine. He also pointed out that Venezuela has paid COVAX to purchase the vaccine and has been frozen by other countries for no reason.

　　In Algeria, recent data showed that only about 7.9% of the country's citizens received one dose of the new crown vaccine, and only 1.7% completed two doses.

With the continuous supply of emergency vaccines, this situation is improving.

Algeria has begun to increase outdoor temporary vaccination stations to meet vaccination needs.

　　Côte d’Ivoire, Niger and other African countries have generally low vaccination rates.

It is understood that the vaccination rate on the African continent as of June 30 only accounts for 2.66% of the total population.

　　The World Health Organization's Regional Director for Africa, Morty, said not long ago: In Africa, only 6 doses of vaccine are vaccinated for every 100 people.

Some high-income countries received an average of 103 doses of vaccine for every 100 people.

　　Throughout the world, the "balance" of the new crown vaccine distribution is still in a severely sloping state.

This has also become a "blocker" achieved by WHO's goal (to reach 10% vaccination rates in all countries in September and 40% by the end of 2021).

　　In order to bridge the extreme imbalance in distribution, WHO recently urged COVAX to advance as planned as soon as possible, and at the same time, the supply schedule should be clarified.

Because so far, only 10% of the nearly 900 million promised doses have been shipped.

The reporter learned that there are still many reasons that hinder the smooth delivery of the new crown vaccine.

To this end, WHO calls on all countries to eliminate export restrictions and other trade barriers on the new crown vaccine and related products.

　　Fulfilling its commitments, China's vaccine rushes to aid vaccine-deficient areas

　　On August 29, the first batch of inactivated new coronavirus vaccines supplied by Beijing Kexing Zhongwei to COVAX departed in Beijing. This batch of vaccines arrived in Algiers, the capital of Algeria, on August 30. Procured by UNICEF, a total of 567,600 doses.

　　On September 4, the 693,600 doses of the new crown vaccine sent by Beijing Kexing Zhongwei to Venezuela were also in transit.

According to the relevant person in charge of Kexing, follow-up plans are also planned to be sent to Algeria and other countries.

　　Prior to this, the first batch of 976782 doses of Covid-19 vaccine supplied by Sinopharm Sino Biotech was officially shipped to Pakistan in the early morning of August 9.

The second batch of more than 1.7 million doses of the new crown vaccine took off from Beijing on the morning of August 10 and was sent to Bangladesh.

　　COVAX is led by the World Health Organization and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. It is the only plan to support low- and middle-income countries to obtain vaccines through advance market commitments. It plans to provide 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine globally by the end of 2021.

　　Prior to this, Sinopharm and Kexing Biotechnology signed cooperation agreements with the "New Coronary Pneumonia Vaccine Implementation Plan" (COVAX) to supply vaccines.

According to the agreement, the two companies will provide vaccines to COVAX starting in July.

　　As early as June 1st of this year, the first batch of new crown vaccines supplied by Sinopharm Sinopharm Co., Ltd. has been offline. According to the agreement, Sinopharm's China Biotechnology Beijing Institute of Biological Products will provide COVAX with 170 million doses of vaccine.

　　Sinopharm Group Sino Biotech also promised that, according to a further agreement, after the second production line is certified by the WHO, all the new crown vaccines with an annual output of 1 billion doses will be supplied to COVAX.

　　Kexing intends to provide a total of 380 million doses of the new coronavirus inactivated vaccine Kerlafore through the COVAX mechanism.

According to the latest data, as of August 31, Kexing has supplied 1.8 billion doses of the new crown vaccine to the world.

　　In order to fulfill China’s commitment to COVAX vaccine supply with practical actions, relevant companies not only continue to work with high intensity and full load, but also promote production capacity through technological innovation. The company has continuously invested in the construction of high-level biosafety production workshops and expanded production capacity to exceed 5 billion doses.

　　According to reports, in order to promote the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries, Sinopharm Group and Kexing Co., Ltd. immediately organized and coordinated production guarantees after obtaining WHO emergency use certification, and actively negotiated with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. Miao matters.

According to the agreement, the two companies will provide 110 million doses of vaccine to the "New Crown Vaccine Implementation Plan" by the end of October. The two parties have reached an agreement on the long-term supply of vaccines in the future, and are currently discussing the specific time and plan for subsequent supply.